Strike a Deal

How much it pays in Dallas-Fort Worth to negotiate your home's price

Get ready to bargain.

Photo by fstop123/Getty Images

For big purchases, there's no such thing as a hard and fast "list price." You're expected to negotiate on cars, mattresses, and especially your house — but it turns out where your home is located could help determine your savings.

Financial website SmartAsset took a look at 100 of the U.S.'s biggest cities to see where it really pays to negotiate when buying a home, and three Texas locales land high on the list.

After comparing the percentage of listings with a price cut and the median price reduction, the site declared Buffalo, New York, the city that's most likely to cut you a deal. There, homes saw an average price reduction of 3.93 percent between August 2019 and September 2020, the highest in the study.

For comparison, Dallas-Fort Worth ranks No. 25 with a median price reduction of 1.92 percent. It showed 19.44 percent of homes listed during the studied time experienced a price cut.

Houston lands at No. 15, with 19.32 percent of homes slashing prices while on the market, for a median 2.26 percent reduction.

SmartAsset also found that price reductions aren't uncommon, no matter where you're looking to buy. Across all 100 metro areas in the study, an average of 15.70 percent of home listings had a price cut.

What's more, the average price reduction across all locales was 2.4 percent. As anyone's who's bought a home knows, even a small percentage off can translate to big savings over the life of your loan. So even if you aren't sure your negotiation tactic is going to work, research has proven it usually can't hurt to go in with an offer lower than the listing price.

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Million-dollar homes

Multi-million-dollar gated home community The Preserve rises in Frisco

Preserve

A palace on the prairie of The Preserve in Frisco

Construction has begun on a multi-million-dollar custom home community in Frisco. Called The Preserve, it's situated among PGA Frisco’s championship golf courses and near the Omni PGA Frisco Resort, with multiple phases that will roll out over the next few years.

The Preserve is part of Fields, a 2,500-acre development in North Frisco off the Dallas North Tollway. Fields is co-developed and owned in partnership with The Karahan Companies, Hunt Realty Investments alongside investors Chief Partners and Cross Tie Capital.

The development will feature retail, dining, entertainment, hotels, corporate offices, native Texas plants, flowers, trees, and 250 acres of park space. It's designed by the same team responsible for Plano’s Legacy West, led by Fehmi Karahan.

Phase 1 of The Preserve will feature 233 homes crafted by 10 North Texas luxury homebuilders: Alford Homes, Coats Homes, and Starside Builders have all begun home construction. The other seven are The Preserve Bella Custom Homes, Endurance Homes, Faulkner Perrin Custom Homes, Hawkins-Welwood Homes, Shaddock Custom Builders & Developers, Sharif & Munir Custom Homes, and Ventura Custom Homes, for whom construction will start soon.

The Preserve Frisco The Preserve in Frisco, soon to be covered with homes.The Preserve

Lot sizes range from 6,800 square feet to more than an acre. Home design options will incorporate high ceilings, open floor plans, glass walls, and seamless transitions between indoor and outdoor such as patios, infinity pools, and landscaped exteriors.

The surrounding area will have more than 2,000 new trees plus views delivered via design elements such as floor-to-ceiling windows and expansive outdoor living areas.

Many of the homes will address sustainability, health, and wellness with green architecture, energy efficiency, water conservation, and recycled building materials.

It will combine the privacy of a gated community with resort-style living, featuring amenities such as the PGA golf courses, 20+ miles of hike and bike trails, and the exclusive Brookside Club with an expansive swimming pool, state-of-the-art fitness center, tennis and pickleball courts and a playground.

Prices will start at $3,500,000.

Hunt Realty SVP Todd Watson calls it one of the most anticipated mixed-use projects in the area -- æa perfect location for discerning buyers seeking their forever home or a secondary residence" — although he's involved with the project so he's probably biased.

“As part of the Fields development, with prominent neighbors like PGA of America and the Omni PGA Frisco Resort, we know The Preserve will be one of the most sought-after addresses in North Texas," Watson says.

According to the Frisco Economic Development Corporation, Frisco’s population has increased by 500 percent in two decades and was recently recognized as the fastest growing city in Texas and third across the U.S.

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