How to Sell Real Estate When Rates Are High and Your Buyers Are Waiting (2026)

If your buyers keep saying they're waiting for rates to come down, stop arguing with them. They've pictured a quiet open house the morning rates drop, with no other bidders. They haven't pictured every other buyer who was waiting for the same number. Ask what rate would make them move. Get them pre-approved and ready now, so they're first instead of fiftieth. Then price a seller-paid buydown with your lender. Ask the seller to pay for it, and your buyer gets close to their number this year.

By D.J. Paris, president of sales and marketing at Kale Realty and host of the Keeping It Real Podcast. The fix is below. If you want to talk it through, there's a 10-minute option right after it.

The real problem: nobody has told them what that day looks like

When a buyer tells me they're waiting for rates, I've learned not to argue. Arguing is what they expect. They've already decided you're going to tell them now is a great time to buy, because every agent says that, in every market, forever. The second you confirm it, you're noise.

In their head there's a specific morning. Rates hit the number they've been reading about. They walk into an open house and it's quiet. The seller is grateful. The price is soft. They write an offer, they get it, and they saved a fortune by being patient.

Here's the part they haven't heard out loud. They are not the only person who set that number. Every buyer who has been sitting out is watching the same headlines and waiting for roughly the same relief. A payment drop doesn't just help your buyer, it helps every buyer who was priced out at the higher payment. More qualified buyers for the same house is plain arithmetic.

I'm not going to tell you or them where rates are going. I don't know, and anyone who says they do is selling something. What I do know is that "wait for the rate" is a plan with exactly one step in it, and the step isn't theirs to take. That's a terrible plan for the person holding it. It's a terrible plan for you too, because a buyer with no next action is a buyer you'll slowly stop calling.

So don't fight the waiting. Turn it into a trigger with a date and a to-do list. The three moves below do that, and none of them require you to have an opinion about the Fed.

Move 1: ask for their number

One question, and it's shorter than you think it should be.

What rate would make you move? The only question that opens this conversation

Then be quiet. Let them answer. Most people have a number, and it's usually below whatever they were last quoted. They'll say it with confidence, because they've said it to their spouse eleven times.

Now ask the second half:

"What do you think happens to prices and competition the week it hits that number?"

Let them sit with it. Most people have never thought past the rate. They've thought about the payment and stopped. When they try to answer, one of two things happens. Either they realize on their own that they'll have company that week, or they say "I don't know," which is the honest answer and the useful one.

You didn't tell them rates might go up. You didn't say "buy now or be priced out forever." You didn't make a forecast you can't back. You asked them to finish a thought they'd only started. That's why it works. People argue with your conclusions and they don't argue with their own.

The other reason I like this question is that it sorts your pipeline in about a day. A buyer who answers with a number is a real buyer with a condition. A buyer who won't answer is waiting on something other than rates, and now you get to find out what. Sometimes it's a job they're worried about. Sometimes it's a spouse who isn't on board, which is a different page entirely, and it's buyer cold feet.

Move 2: get them ready now so they're first, not fiftieth

Once they've given you a number, you have a trigger. A trigger needs a plan attached to it or it's just a wish. Here's the pitch, and it's short:

Here's the deal. Let's do the pre-approval, the search, and the plan now, while there's no rush. Then if your number hits, you're the buyer who's ready on day one. If it doesn't, you've lost nothing. The get-ready ask

This one is an easy yes, because it costs them nothing and it feels smart. You haven't asked them to abandon their position. You've handed them a way to be right and prepared at the same time.

Ready means three concrete things, and you should name all three so it doesn't sound vague. One, a real pre-approval with a lender who will pick up the phone on a Saturday. Two, a search that's tuned, with the streets, the buildings, and the deal-breakers written down instead of implied. Three, a plan for the first week, meaning who they call, how fast they can see something, and what they're willing to do to win it.

Pre-approvals expire, so tell them that up front and ask the lender how long theirs is good for and what it takes to refresh it. Saying that out loud protects you later. A buyer whose letter went stale six weeks before their number hits is exactly the buyer who ends up fiftieth.

Move 3: get them their rate this year, and let the seller pay for it

Most agents never make this move. It's the one that turns a waiting buyer into a closing.

Call your lender and ask a plain question. What would a seller-paid buydown cost at my buyer's price point, and how far down does it move the payment? Get a real number from a real lender on a real price. Don't estimate it yourself, and don't take a number off this page, because pricing on these moves with the market and with the loan.

Then go back to the buyer with this:

I can get you close to your number now. We ask the seller to pay for it as a concession. Want to see the math? The buydown conversation

Three things make that work. It's specific, it's about their number and not the market's, and it ends with a question they can say yes to without committing to a house. "Want to see the math" is a small yes, and small yeses are how big ones start.

Now the part about sellers. In a slow market, sellers will agree to concessions they would never agree to on price. A price cut is public, permanent, and feels like losing. A credit toward the buyer's closing costs shows up as a term and gets the deal done. It isn't always rational, but I've watched it happen plenty. Your job is to ask, in writing, in the offer.

Two guardrails, and please don't skip them. First, the loan program and the lender decide whether a concession is allowed and how much can go to a buydown. The lender answers that question, not you and not me. Second, run the concession structure past your managing broker before you put it in an offer. Office policy on how you paper this comes first, and it varies.

Do this today

The question is the whole move

If you only do one thing off this page, ask the question. "What rate would make you move?" It takes eight seconds to type and it turns a vague objection into a number you can work with.

The agents I watch struggle in a market like this aren't lazy. They're stuck arguing a point they can't win, because you can't win an argument about where rates are going. Stop arguing. Start asking, get people ready, and find out what a seller will pay for.

Who this works for, and who should read something else

Frequently asked questions

Still stuck on this one? Book 10 minutes with D.J. I'll call you, and I won't bring up Kale unless you do.