Ed 
Nobody can tell you the average seller concession in Austin, because the MLS feed we pull doesn’t carry a concessions field at all. What it does carry is the listing remarks, and our Neuhaus Realty Group analysis of them tells a pretty clear story. Of 11,450 resale closings in Travis, Williamson and Hays counties from April through September 2026, the 225 homes whose remarks advertised a seller credit, concession or rate buydown took a median 64 days to sell, versus 30 days for everybody, and closed at 93.5% of their original list price versus 96.1%.
So the homes that waved a credit around sat more than twice as long and still sold for less. That’s not that hard to read right. (And yes, I know some of those sellers added the credit because the house was already sitting. We’ll get to that, it matters.)
Those numbers come from MLS closings in our own listing database, and I’ll show you exactly how I counted them below (this is not some fancy model, it’s me and a keyword list). But first, the short version of my advice, because it’s the same advice I’d give you over coffee. I would tell sellers not to offer concessions up front. I would tell them to price their property correctly to begin with.
Here’s why. Buyers right now are picky. If the property is not in top-notch shape, they’re not interested. So what buyers are actually asking sellers to pay for in 2026 isn’t some generic closing cost credit sitting in the listing. It’s the stuff that’s wrong with the house, and they’re asking sellers to take care of it either before closing or after.
The biggest seller concession I saw last year was a $125,000 pool
The biggest concession I saw last year was a buyer asking the seller to pay for a pool after closing. About $125,000. It was a cash deal with no mortgage on it, and it was all above board. For reasons I can’t share, that’s what they chose to do.
Is that normal? No. Please don’t read this and go ask for a pool. But it’s a good reminder that a concession can be just about anything a buyer and seller agree to, which is exactly why nobody can hand you a clean average.
What Austin listing remarks say about seller concessions
Ok, lets get into the table. Since there’s no concessions field, I went to the next best thing, the public remarks agents write on every listing. I sorted every resale closing from April 1 through September 30, 2026 by what those remarks said. New construction is left out (builders play a different incentive game), and so are a few dozen records with obviously broken prices.
| What the listing remarks said | Closings | Share of all | Median days on market | Median sale price as % of original list | Sold at or above original list | Median sale price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advertised a seller credit, concession, or rate buydown | 225 | 2.0% | 64 | 93.5% | 8.4% | $398,000 |
| Said “as-is,” “needs TLC,” “investor special,” “fixer” | 307 | 2.7% | 26 | 92.7% | 22.8% | $335,000 |
| Said “move-in ready,” “turnkey,” “fully/recently updated” | 3,827 | 33.4% | 26 | 96.5% | 23.9% | $450,000 |
| Named a big fix already done (new roof, new HVAC, new water heater, foundation work) | 1,624 | 14.2% | 27 | 96.6% | 26.1% | $449,000 |
| None of the above | 6,443 | 56.3% | 31 | 95.9% | 22.0% | $497,000 |
| All resale closings | 11,450 | 100.0% | 30 | 96.1% | 22.7% | $475,000 |
Source: Neuhaus Realty Group analysis of MLS closings, Travis, Williamson and Hays counties, April 1 to September 30, 2026. Residential resale only (houses, condos and townhomes), new construction excluded, 11,450 closings. Groups overlap, so a listing that said “as-is” and “new roof” counts in both. “% of original list” is close price divided by the first list price.
Three things jump out at me.
The credit-up-front group is the slowest group on the board. 64 days median. Only 8.4% of those homes sold at or above their original list price, compared with 22.7% of all resale closings. Every other row on that table sold in about a month.
Condition gets paid for one way or another. Listings that said “move-in ready,” “turnkey” or “fully updated” sold in a median 26 days at 96.5% of original list. Listings that named a big fix already done (new roof, new HVAC, that kind of thing) did 27 days and 96.6%, and 26.1% of them sold at or above original list, the best hit rate on the table. That lines up exactly with what I said above, buyers want the house in top-notch shape and they reward the sellers who already handled it.
As-is homes sell fast, just not for much. The as-is, needs-TLC, investor-special crowd moved in 26 days too, but at 92.7% of original list. That’s the lowest ratio on the table. Those sellers aren’t paying the buyer a credit, they’re paying it in price. Same money, different line on the settlement statement right.
Now the honest caveat, because I’d want you to tell me if it were my data. Remarks are a proxy, agents don’t always write “as-is” even when the house is, and our database keeps the final version of the remarks, so I can’t tell whether a credit was in there on day one or got added on day 45 after a price cut. Some of those 225 homes sat and then offered a credit, not the other way around. I’m a broker, not a statistician, so read the table as “listings that end up advertising a credit are listings that struggled,” which is plenty useful on its own.
Seller credits in Texas play out the same in all three counties
I wanted to make sure this wasn’t just a Travis County thing, so here’s the same split by county.
| County | Resale closings | Advertised a credit up front | Median days on market (credit / no credit) | Median % of original list (credit / no credit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travis | 6,400 | 99 (1.5%) | 67.5 / 28 | 92.5% / 95.9% |
| Williamson | 3,767 | 95 (2.5%) | 57 / 28 | 93.8% / 96.6% |
| Hays | 1,283 | 31 (2.4%) | 70 / 32 | 93.8% / 96.2% |
Source: same dataset as above. “Credit” means the listing remarks mentioned a seller credit, concession, closing cost contribution or rate buydown.
Same pattern three times. Homes that advertised a credit took at least twice as long in every county and gave up roughly 2.4 to 3.4 points of original list price. Williamson has the highest share advertising one (2.5%), Travis the lowest (1.5%).
Right now, 416 active listings advertise a credit or buydown
And here’s what’s on the market today, October 2, 2026.
| County | Active resale listings | Remarks advertise a credit or buydown | Share | Median days on market (all / advertising a credit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travis | 5,212 | 183 | 3.5% | 45 / 60 |
| Williamson | 2,800 | 182 | 6.5% | 46 / 56.5 |
| Hays | 1,214 | 51 | 4.2% | 46 / 65 |
| All three | 9,226 | 416 | 4.5% | n/a |
Source: Neuhaus Realty Group listing database, active residential resale listings as of October 2, 2026. Days on market is as of that date.
4.5% of active resale listings across the three counties are advertising a credit or buydown in their remarks, and in every county those listings have already been sitting longer than the rest. Some of that is the lender incentives that show up in remarks too (a preferred lender paying for a temporary buydown counts in my keyword search, I didn’t try to separate them). Either way, it’s the same signal.
Should I offer seller concessions up front? No. Price it right.
Kahneman’s whole thing is anchoring, the first number you see bends every number after it. An up-front credit is an anchor. It tells every buyer who walks in that the price already has some give in it, and nothing stops them from asking for the credit and the repairs and a little off the top. You started the negotiation at the bottom of your own range.
So my advice hasn’t changed. Don’t offer seller concessions up front. Price the property correctly to begin with. If you’re not sure what correct is, that’s literally the question a good CMA answers, and if you bought between 2021 and 2023 it’s worth reading what the data says about sellers who can’t cut their price before you set a number.
And if you want the other side of the table, our buyer’s guide to negotiating seller concessions in Austin walks through the loan-type caps and how buyers structure the ask. Worth knowing what they’re going to come at you with.
Repair requests after inspection in Austin are where the money goes
So if the credit isn’t in the listing, where do seller concessions actually show up? In condition. Buyers are asking sellers to take care of those things, either before closing or after, and in a Texas resale deal the normal place that ask gets made is the option period, once the inspection report is in. That’s the conversation to plan for.
The paperwork matters here. Most Texas resale contracts are written so the buyer takes the property “As Is,” but Paragraph 7D of the TREC One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale) says that doesn’t stop the buyer from inspecting, from negotiating repairs in a later amendment, or from terminating during the option period. As-is is not a force field. (I wish it were, sellers would love me.) Our post on inspection repair negotiation in Texas goes box by box through the amendment form if you want the mechanics.
A few things I’d do as a seller, all of which follow from the data above:
- Fix the obvious stuff before you list. The new-roof, new-HVAC listings had the best at-or-above-list rate on the table. Buyers are picky, give them less to be picky about.
- Price for the condition you’re actually selling. If you’re going as-is, price like it, because the as-is group closed at a median 92.7% of original list.
- Hold your credit in your pocket. If a buyer’s inspection turns something up, you can still say yes to a repair or a credit then. You just don’t announce it on day one.
Selling a house as-is in Austin
But what if the house really does need work and you don’t want to deal with it? That’s fine. Plenty of people sell as-is and it was the right call for them. The data just says be realistic, because 307 as-is-style closings went at a median 92.7% of original list. If it’s an inherited house, our piece on whether to renovate or sell an inherited Austin home as-is walks through that decision.
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I’ve been selling homes here since 2009, and the sellers who do best right now are the ones who get the price and the condition right before the sign goes up, not the ones who try to fix it with a credit later. If you want a straight answer on what your house will sell for as it sits, and what’s worth fixing first, reach out to Ed Neuhaus. Lets grab coffee and look at your numbers. Be safe, be good, and be nice to people.
