The latest How to Sell Your Atlanta Home with Sage & Grace episode dives into the power of seller concessions – when sellers help pay a buyer’s costs to sweeten the deal. Host Judy Jernigan sits down with Geoff Smith, branch manager at Assurance Financial, to unpack how concessions work and why they can lead to faster, more profitable sales in today’s market.
In a cooling market where more than 44 % of U.S. home sales included some form of concession in early‑2025, understanding this strategy is critical for Atlanta homeowners who want to stand out without slashing their sale price.
What are seller concessions?
Concessions are home‑buying costs that sellers agree to cover to make their property more appealing. Common examples include covering closing costs (appraisal fees, title insurance, or loan fees), offering price adjustments instead of making repairs, or adding a home warranty.
In a balanced market, the costs of these concessions come out of the seller’s proceeds at closing, not additional cash.
Why concessions help sellers
With inventory rising and buyers regaining negotiating power, concessions help sellers speed up negotiations and preserve their desired price.
Instead of re‑listing when an inspection uncovers repair issues, you might lower the price or offer closing‑cost assistance so the buyer can handle repairs.
Real‑estate experts note that pricing homes realistically while being willing to offer concessions — such as covering a portion of closing costs or including upgrades — is key to closing deals in a less frenetic market.
How different loans limit concessions
Lending rules cap how much a seller can contribute. For instance, conventional loans generally allow sellers to contribute up to 3 % of the sale price when a buyer’s down payment is under 10 %, and up to 6 % when the down payment is between 10–25 %. FHA loans allow up to 6 %, VA loans limit concessions to 4 % (but allow sellers to pay all closing costs), and USDA loans permit up to 6 %perryrealestatecollege.com.
Geoff explains how understanding these limits helps you structure offers that remain competitive yet maximize your net proceeds.
Smart concession strategies
With many sellers offering concessions in 2025, Geoff advises tailoring incentives to your buyers: covering closing costs, providing repair credits, temporary mortgage‑rate buydowns, or even pre‑paying HOA dues.
He suggests tiering incentives — offer a modest credit first, then sweeten the deal if negotiations stall.
Always partner with a knowledgeable agent to ensure you give away just enough to entice buyers without eroding your profit.
Geoff Smith – Branch Manager, Assurance Financial
Geoff brings years of mortgage‑lending experience, guiding clients through complex home‑purchase financing. In this episode he discusses how buyer incentives (closing‑cost credits, rate buydowns, or home warranties) differ across loan types and shares negotiation tactics to keep sellers in control.
For more about Geoff, visit the Assurance Financial site (assurancemortgage.com/geoff-smith) or connect via Facebook (facebook.com/AssuranceMortgageBanker).
Email: [email protected] | Phone: +1 678 779 5066.
Brookhaven Housing Market Forecast 2025 – Why Concessions Matter
Judy notes that more than 61 % of metro‑Atlanta sellers were offering concessions such as closing‑cost credits or rate buydowns in early 2025 and stresses that these incentives should be factored into your pricing strategy. She suggests offering fixed closing‑cost credits, short‑term rate buydowns or home warranties instead of open‑ended allowances to attract buyers.
Luxury Home Value in Brookhaven – Modern Concession Tactics
Judy encourages sellers to use credits, rate buydowns and creative terms to win deals without discounting their price. She notes that modern concessions help protect a seller’s net proceeds and can be a win‑win when negotiated strategically.
Real‑World Success Story: 1 Year Without a Buyer… Judy Got It Sold in 1 Day
In this case study, Judy transformed a languishing listing by revamping pricing, staging, and marketing. A key tactic was offering buyers incentives and ensuring the home presented beautifully. The property sold in one day at full price, and the client praised Judy’s dedication and strategic approach.
Occupied Home Staging Tips – Episode 3
Judy teams up with home‑staging expert Krisztina Bell to share practical tips for making your lived‑in home photo‑ready. They discuss decluttering, pre‑packing, and staging each room for maximum buyer appeal.
Buy Before You Sell – Episode 2
Discover niche lending programs and bridge‑loan options that allow you to purchase your next home before selling your current one. Mortgage originator Derek White explains how to craft contingency‑free offers and manage debt‑to‑income ratios.
Seller concessions are no longer a sign of weakness; they’re a strategic tool. In early‑2025, 44.4 % of U.S. home sales included a concession, and in metro Atlanta the rate was even higher. With buyers facing high mortgage rates and a growing supply of homes, offering the right incentive can:
Attract more qualified buyers – covering closing costs or buying down the rate lowers buyers’ upfront expenses and monthly payments.
Speed up negotiations – concessions address inspection issues or financing hurdles without re‑listing the home.
Protect your sale price – instead of slashing your listing price, you can deliver value in targeted ways and maintain your net.
Stand out in a crowded market – tailor incentives to local conditions and advertise them in your listing to capture attention.
Don’t just take it from us—here’s what Judy’s clients say:
“Judy is amazing and truly cares about her clients. She kept us updated on offers and closings, worked tirelessly to get us the best deal, and helped us close quickly.”
Another client noted that Judy was proactive and communicative, making the closing process smooth and stress‑free.
Ready to leverage concessions to sell your Atlanta home faster and for more money?
Schedule a listing consultation or a quick chat with Judy at Calendly.com/judyjernigan, explore her resources at SageAndGraceRE.com, or request a free home valuation.
Let concessions work for you — and turn interested buyers into competitive offers.
Speaker 1 Buying a home is expensive, and many potential home buyers won't be able to do it without the seller understanding how the funds need to be structured, and, of course, how they are arranged is negotiable. A topic right now is home sellers helping or not helping home buyers with some of the costs of buying a home, such as mortgage fees, realtor fees, attorney fees, just so the closing can happen, let's give home sellers a quick overview, a reminder of all the costs and essentially all the cash in hand a potential home buyer for their property may need to have in order to close. Selling a home isn't just about putting up a for sale sign. It's about strategy, marketing and negotiation, but how do you know if you're making the right moves? I'm Judy Jernigan recognized among the top 5% by the Atlanta realtors and your host of how to sell your Atlanta home with sage and grace, smart homeowner strategies, successful real estate sales with a background in broadcasting, negotiation and education, I bring a unique perspective to home sales, helping homeowners sell faster for top dollar and with less hassle, while understanding not just the financial side, but also the logistical and emotional considerations of a move this show helps you plan ahead, navigate the market and work more effectively with a realtor like me, you'll get expert insights from my guests, plus real, actionable strategies to sell with confidence. Now here's the show, moving you forward with sage advice and grace. Today, I'm joined by Jeff Smith, the branch manager at assurance financials, Roswell, Georgia office, with a strong passion for community and extensive experience in the mortgage industry, Jeff is here to help homeowners understand the home buyers perspective. So Jeff, what advice do you have for home sellers who are targeting first time home buyers right now? Well, first Speaker 2 time home buyers typically are their first house they may not always be in the best financial position. Let's say a more seasoned buyer, somebody a little bit further on, later on in their life, into their work life, into their career. So they're going to need a few things and a lot of times first time home buyers, it can help a lot if you just can offer up. Did you know sellers can pay? They can offer to pay a portion of the closing costs. And on a conventional loan, for example, a seller can pay up to 3% of the purchase price in closing costs. They can offer to help pay that. They can do more if the buyer is putting a bigger down payment, down but for putting the minimum down payment, you talking 3% which can be a lot, but that can be a huge help to somebody looking to buy a house, and maybe a little strapped for cash, maybe coming up with as much as they can, just for the minimum down payment alone, much less the attorney's fees, the taxes, the appraisal, the origination fees From the lender Speaker 1 to that point so home, many homeowners have been in their homes for many years. They may not even remember all the fees that are involved in buying a home. Let's talk for a minute about closing costs. For example, is a term that gets thrown around that a lot of people don't know what that means. What are some of the or let's list the cost that a home buyer has to consider what, what are some of the things that they need to pay for when you're buying a home? Speaker 2 Absolutely. So closing costs, to me, when you're talking about closing or you're talking about closing costs and the prepaid escaros So we're talking about closing costs, these are all of the costs that are required, really, to put the whole transaction together. So you're going to have an origination fee that may be in the form of points for the loan, for the loan, right? You can pay. You can buy your rate down. And those are called points. There's usually an administrative fee from the lender as well to cover their underwriting, processing and closing of the loan. You're going to pay about $600 or less for an appraisal. You're going to pay, you're going to pay them back for the credit monitoring that goes on during that to make sure that you don't go buy a new Ferrari right before closing, there's going to be that closing attorney that you mentioned. And the closing attorney's job, of course, is to make sure everything's nice and legal and binding and make sure everything is filed properly with the city, county and state, among other things, the attorney provides in Georgia, this thing called Title Insurance. Title insurance can be several $1,000 easy, and there's one title insurance that covers the lenders position on the lien, and there's another titles position that covers the buyers position and ownership rights to the property, among other things. And then, of course, there's some nice government fees, some state taxes, state, city, state and county taxes that can add up. And then when you talk about prepaids and escaros, you know you're going to have to pay your homeowners insurance the first year needs to be paid in advance, it is up to you to go find that homeowners insurance. That is something you do have control over. So you can go shop your homeowners insurance around and. Homeowners insurance premiums vary greatly by what you're covering. So anyway, you can go out and shop your homeowners insurance, and you can decide how much you want to pay, because premiums vary greatly from one homeowners insurance policy to another for a number of reasons. And then there's going to be property taxes. We have to get you set up in our system, because we want to pay your property taxes, and we want to pay your homeowners insurance bill every year. It's very important to us that those two bills get paid. If the taxes don't get paid, the county can take over ownership of the property, and they're not going to pay us back for the loan. So it's pretty important that that bill gets paid. So we want to pay up. You do have the option if you're putting 20% down to to not have us pay those bills. You can pay those yourself, but because that's an added layer of risk for us, every lender is probably going to add just a little bit, maybe in rate or points if you decide to do that. But those are the main closing costs. That's everything kind of that you're looking for on a normal transaction. So Speaker 1 two other things that we need to mention for a home buyer costs that they're going to need to come up with, potentially cash at closing for we've talked about all the lender lender fees. We talked about the attorney fees, prepaid escrow, which are things like homeowners insurance, HOA dues, property taxes, we also can't forget their down payment and likely compensating the real estate agent who represents them. That can be another cost to a homeowner or a home buyer, rather when they get to the closing table. So what are some of the effective seller incentive or seller concessions that can make, that can be part of a home listing plan to make a home more attractive to home buyers, especially if you've decided that your home is likely going to be a first time home buyer a good fit for a first time home buyer again. What are some of the effective seller incentives that can make your home more attractive? Well, Speaker 2 there's a couple things you can do. So you can offer seller paid closing costs. You can offer that right away in the listing. You can put the amount that you're willing to offer. Maybe this house also comes with $3,000 and in seller paid closing costs. And then there's other things you can do as well that maybe aren't upfront costs, like you might advertise a rate buy down. So there are certain lenders that will offer a rate buy down. So you can offer a certain number, a certain cash amount, that will buy the rate down for the homeowner, and you'll get with the lender before you make that listing. And that's something that you can put right there in the in the listing verbiage. Those are just some of the things that you can do. And then there's some areas. There's some parts of town that qualify for different first time homebuyer programs. There are some banks out there that have identified certain geographical areas around the metro Atlanta area where they are going to be more advantageous to getting a much better rate or maybe even some sort of discount. Freddie Mac has a program out right now where there's certain areas where they'll give $3,000 to the south to the borrower, buyer at closing, if if the house is within that area. So if you're a listing agent or if you're a seller, it behooves you to get with your lender and see if you're in one of those areas, because that certainly would make your house a little more attractive to potential buyers. Yes, I Speaker 1 love that. A home warranty is another thing that can be part of a marketing plan, offering to pay for that in advance. So what I like to remind my homeowners when they're thinking about selling is all of this come it comes out of your bottom line. So I have found that most home sellers are willing to pay for rate buy down, or pay for a buyer's agent compensation or pay for a home warranty. As long as they've looked at what the seller's net proceeds are going to be, it all and that number is where they want it to be, then they're happy to structure the funds however they need to be structured for that particular buyer to be able to get to closing. That's right, Speaker 2 you never know what is, what is going to excite a buyer you don't know. So the more things that you can put out there, the more the more wider net you're going to have, the more attractive you're going to be to certain certain segments of the population who might be buying your house. So it's very important to identify and and that's why you need a good realtor. Is to identify who your target market is going to be for that house, and then to structure the listing, the marketing materials for that listing in a way that goes after that particular home buyer Exactly. Speaker 1 So when a home seller has is getting offers for their property, those offers in this area usually are accompanied by a pre approval or a pre qualification letter. What should home sellers know about about pre approval letters? Well, Speaker 2 pre approval letters are only as good as the person who wrote the pre approval letter, and that is you. You nodding your head. You've been in this industry long enough. And I this is a phrase I use some some mortgage people, some loan officers. Hand out pre approval letters like candy on Halloween, right? How much do you make? Very good, okay, how much? How much debt do you have? Okay, great. Here's your pre approval letter. And some of them, it's really that quick and easy, and they may be too busy, and they say, we'll just figure it out once the deal goes binding, but the last thing you want to do is get involved with a buyer who's going to make you take your house off the market for several weeks, only to find out right before closing, when you've already got another contract on a new house, but they're not actually approved for the loan, and they never were to begin with. So it's important, it's another reason why you need a good realtor. Quite honestly, I know good listing agents because they always call me and interview me when they see my pre approval letter. They get an offer that has my letter with it, they're going to call me and they're going to ask the kind of questions they need to ask, to verify and understand that I actually did a pre approval, I actually looked at documents, I actually did everything I needed to do, and that my word actually means something very Unknown Speaker first thing I do, Speaker 1 let's let homeowners know a little bit about shifting gears about the different types of financing, especially for a first time home buyer, they're going to see offers that may be a buyer planning to get a conventional loan, an FHA loan, or even a VA loan. Can you talk just a little bit about how those different loan types can affect the home selling and the lending process? Speaker 2 Absolutely. So I mean, when I'm pre approving somebody, one of the first things we do is try to figure out which loan program is good for them. And just to go high level, right, we're talking about these big agency loans, Fannie, Mae, Freddie Mac, which are conventional FHA VA, and if you're way out in the country, which we're far from here, USDA loans, each one of those is really designed for a certain segment of the population, and each one of those takes risk off of our bank's shoulders, and that they tell us they're going to pay us back if the borrower defaults on the loan. So they take a lot of risk away, which means we can offer loans at great terms with low interest rates and low down payments. It's important to know if you're a seller, if you're looking at different deals, a lot of people like a conventional loan, because a conventional loan is typically more for your high credit, higher credit borrower, the person who's making a little bit less making more money and is buying a little bit less house because they have a lower debt to income ratio, a little bit more strict in certain regards. FHA is, a it's a loan where, in a lot of ways, it's a lot more lenient for the home buyer. So you know, in a lot of ways, it's going to allow a lower credit, it's going to allow a higher debt to income ratio for that buyer, and a lot of times it's going to offer a lower down payment. So as a seller, the thing you need to be aware of with an FHA loan and a VA loan, really is that the one thing that's different about those two it affects you is their appraisal contingency. And this is where some listing agents get rubbed the wrong way is the appraisal contingencies on those two loans last the entire life of the loan. So an appraisal contingency basically says you have X amount of days buyer to get an appraisal, and if the appraisal is low, you can walk away from the deal and you get to keep your earnest money as long as it's within these amount of days on an FHA and VA loan that there is no amount of days it goes all the way to closing. That said, I'm sympathetic to those kind of borrowers, especially our veterans, who are getting a VA loan. And if, once the appraisal comes in at value, everybody's happy, nobody's walking away. So the risk, to me, is a little mitigated, but typically, listing agents like to see those conventional loans. It makes them feel makes them feel a little bit better than seeing an FHA and VA gets a bad rap. I'm a huge fan of VA loans. I think the appraisal process is perfectly fine, and I think it's a great one, and so I'm going to make a stand for our veterans real quick. Speaker 1 I'm always proud and honored to work with a veteran, but weighing the different pros and cons of the different loan types is something that I as a listing agent do feel is really important part of my job to help my homeowners understand the different the different process that each home buyer will be going through, and the risk that comes to the homeowner by accepting the different types of lives. Well, Speaker 2 again, it's critical you get a good a good agent, especially in a competitive environment. I know a lot of people who say, well, it's so competitive, it's going to be so easy to sell my house. Well, then they're, all sudden, they're sorting through 15 offers, right? And how do they know, you know you pick the wrong offer? Okay, I'm going with the highest price. Well, they may not be qualified because they may not have a good lender, right? Or there may be, they may be strings attached to their loan that you're not aware of. And I've just seen people get into a lot of trouble where they're their house all of a sudden is on the market a lot longer than they thought because they didn't have a professional looking through all those offers. And there's, it's a lot more than just the purchase price that you negotiate. I mean, there's a closing date, there's all the contingencies, there's the seller paid closing costs. I mean, it's one thing at the due diligence period, and what goes on there, and then when stuff comes up. How do we negotiate that? It's important, especially in a competitive situation, to have a true professional on your side. And. Exactly, Speaker 1 and now we're negotiating buyer's agency fees again, closing costs, like you talked about HOA dues, repairs, all of those are negotiable up front. And through closing I was negotiating on the way to the closing table last week. Yeah, sometimes that needs to happen. The homeowner had not moved out of the home yet, so we were getting that taken care of, um, and let's talk. We just have a few more minutes about how the different seller concessions that we've mentioned sellers can help a home buyer pay for different things, and how that informs an appraisal. So what I mean by that is, of course, the purchase price and the appraised value need to the appraised value can't be lower than the agreed upon purchase price. And as I mentioned earlier, a seller, a homeowner, is usually willing to help a home buyer with their closing costs, as long as the seller nets what they need to net at the end of the day. So sometimes that can take the form of a home buyer saying, You know what, I'm going to offer a little bit higher purchase price, because I would like the home seller to help me with some of my closing costs or my agent fees. And that can work really well, unless the home doesn't appraise for that higher value. That's right, Transcript
Speaker 2 yep, yeah, and you're exactly right. And sometimes that's why it's good to for the lender and the realtor to have a good relationship so that they can craft a winning deal, right? And so let's just say you've got a $400,000 house, right? And you go into the sellers listing it for $400,000 the buyer really needs $10,000 in seller paid closing costs. So they come in and they say, Hey, we're going to offer $400,000.10 $1,000 in seller paid closing costs. And the seller says, No, I'm listing it at $400,000 Unknown Speaker well, the buyer may come back and say, Okay, well, how about $410,000 Speaker 2 on the purchase price with 10,000 and seller paid closing costs. Well, for the seller, it's a wash. They're getting the exact same amount of money. The only problem is going to be if the house doesn't appraise for $410,000 so when a house doesn't appraise, four things can happen. Number one, the buyer has to come up with more money, right? But the first thing we start with is. Number two, we ask the seller to come, to come down in price, to lower the purchase price, to meet that appraised value. Number three, seller, the price comes down a little bit, and the seller buyer comes with a little bit of money, and they meet in the middle. And then number four is we can't agree on anything, and we walk away. Unknown Speaker And those contingencies Speaker 1 we talked about do protect the home buyer in that situation, the financing contingency, or the appraisal contingency, rather, and the mandatory clause and the VA and FHA loans, what? What are you seeing? I, in my experiences, I have seen appraisers when they are looking, when they are coming up with their values. They are, of course, looking at comparable nearby recent sales, and they are looking to see if home what concessions those home owners, those home sellers, made in for those sales. Do you Do you see that? Do you think they are looking at the big picture? I think Speaker 2 the good thing that happened in after 2008 in the crash is there were some very rigid rules put in place for appraising. And those rules do allow, they do allow for an appraiser to look at things differently. So for example, appraising, it's a science, and it's kind of a simple science, right? You need three, three comparable homes sold in the same neighborhood with the same bed bath and square footage sold in the last six months. In a perfect world. That's what you're looking for. If you can't find that, then you have to stretch it. You can't jump over bad comps that you don't like in order to get to good comps. Okay, you can't do that, but you might have a situation where, like, down here, this is very common, where you've got a small neighborhood. House is selling in that small neighborhood and all, and it's all been that neighborhood's all been redone. It's all been upgraded, remodeled, and every every house is maybe $800,000 and then all around it, you maybe have houses that have not and they're $400,000 every appraisal gets graded now by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac it goes to a national database and gets graded. So in that situation, I've had this happen before, right around the corner, actually, from where we are on Dresden, where that house appraised for $800,000 but Fannie and Freddie, they just draw a circle and they see comps that are $400,000 so our appraiser had to go back to Fannie and Freddie and say, hey, look, this is because this is a neighborhood right here that's all been upgraded and redone and remodeled, and all these houses haven't, and in that case, it left them room to win that appraisal. So I hope that answers your question. Speaker 1 That's great. So I think the take, some of the takeaways we've talked about today is we both would encourage home sellers to keep an open mind to concessions, things that they can do to structure a contract, to help make a closing happen for a home buyer. And there are lots of terms that are negotiable as part of a contract and part of. An offer, and you've made some good points about making sure that you have the right team around you, your lending team, your real estate professionals. They're going to help advise you and help you make good decisions. Speaker 2 Absolutely, it's critical to have every component along the way, from the closing attorney, the realtor to the lender to the home to the homeowners insurance person. Yes, it's important to make sure everybody's on board and willing to make this deal a success. You never know when you're going to need a true professional and when you get yourself caught into a situation, trust me, you need one. Where can people find you? Well, Jeff Smith, insurance, mortgage com, you can look at Jeff Smith. I'm Jeff with a G, G, E, O, F, F. Jeff Smith office on canton street in downtown Roswell. But I'm all over the metro Atlanta area, licensed in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina and Florida and Arkansas. So if you're buying a house in Arkansas, if you're getting transferred out to Walmart territory, I can do a loan there as well. Awesome. I love that. Thank you for joining us today. It is my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. Speaker 1 Navigating the North Atlanta real estate market can be overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. I am Judy Jernigan, founder and team lead of sage and Grace Realty Group, a partner at clario Real Estate, a licensed broker in Georgia and North Carolina. And this is our home owners series, trying to help you sell your Atlanta home with sage and grace, successful home sales and smart strategies for homeowners. We'll see you next time. Thanks for joining us on how to sell your Atlanta home with sage and grace. I'm Judy Jernigan, and I love helping homeowners sell smarter, with less stress and better results. Who do you know with real estate questions? Please connect us so we can make confident, well informed decisions and get the best possible outcomes together. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like subscribe and leave a five star review. It helps more homeowners get the smart strategies they need for a successful sale. Head to Sage and Grace R e.com to learn more about working with me and the sage and Grace real estate team. Explore all our show episodes and when you're ready, book a chat directly with me. Judy Jernigan, moving you forward with sage advice and grace. Judy.