For agents
Your seller's concession: three doors, three very different outcomes
On these numbers the permanent buydown saves your buyer the most for as long as the loan lasts — $1,199/mo against $414/mo for a price cut, and it is the only door that changes what your buyer can qualify for. The temporary 3-2-1 saves more than either in year one — $3,062/mo — and then runs out.
Same dollars, three structures. This is the conversation to have before you cut the price — because a price cut is the only one of the three that resets the comp.
The deal
30-year fixed. The rate before any buydown. Any decimal — 6.625, 6.62, whatever you were quoted.
What your seller is prepared to give up.
Loan amount $1,600,000 · payment before any concession $11,050.80/mo. Every figure here is principal and interest only, and is an illustration generated from the numbers above — not a quote, an approval, or an offer of credit.
Cut the price
$414/mo
saved, for the life of the loan
The price drops to $1,925,000, so your buyer borrows a little less every month.
Heads-up: the lower price becomes a sale record for the neighborhood.
See the details
Rate
7.375% — unchanged
Monthly savings
$414.41/mo
For the life of the loan.
Temporary 3-2-1 buydown
$3,062/mo
saved in year 1, less in years 2–3, then none
The seller's money lowers your buyer's payment for the first 3 years. After that they pay the full amount.
From year 4: $11,051/mo, the normal payment.
See the details
Rate
4.375% → 5.375% → 6.375%
Monthly savings
- Yr 1
- $3,062.24/mo
- Yr 2
- $2,091.26/mo
- Yr 3
- $1,068.88/mo
- Yr 4+
- none
The escrow runs out after year 3; the payment returns to $11,050.80/mo.
Permanent buydown
$1,199/mo
saved, for the life of the loan
The seller's money buys your buyer a lower rate for good. It can also help them qualify.
Pays for itself in about 4 years 7 months. Sell or refinance sooner and your buyer loses some of the value.
See the details
Rate
6.250% — for good
Monthly savings
$1,199.33/mo
For the life of the loan.
Estimated cost of that 1.125% reduction
3.21–5.63 points ($51,429–$90,000)
Estimated range only, not a quote or a commitment to lend. It's based on one lender's actual pricing on a single day in September 2026 for one loan program — real pricing changes daily and depends on your loan program, loan amount, credit profile, and current market conditions. Contact Mike directly for real numbers based on your scenario.
6.250% is as low as this pricing goes. Reaching it costs $66,402, so $8,598.00 of the $75,000 is not needed for this door — past the floor, more points buy no more rate. That floor is not a universal limit — it's where one lender's pricing stopped on one day. Yours could land higher, lower, or the same.
One point is $16,000 here — 1% of the loan, which is a fixed definition and is not what varies. The only door that changes what your buyer can qualify for — underwriting uses 6.250%, not 7.375%.
Refinance early and the unused part of this is gone.
A permanent buydown is bought once, against this rate and this term — not against wherever rates go later. Here it takes $66,402 to move 7.375% down to 6.250%, and that buys $1,199.33/mo. So it is about 55 payments — 4 years 7 months — before the saving has added up to what was spent. Refinance or sell before then and only the months already taken were worth anything: points are paid at closing, and they do not refund or carry over to the next loan.
The awkward case is rates falling on their own. If they reach around 6.250% anyway, refinancing lands on the rate this money already bought — so it bought the years in between, not a rate nobody else could get.
Door 2 carries the opposite risk: a temporary buydown’s escrow is not spent up front, so an early refinance leaves a balance still sitting there rather than a purchase already made.
Monthly savings are measured against the $11,050.80 payment at the 7.375% note rate.
What $75,000 buys as a temporary buydown
The richest one it fully funds is the 3-2-1, and that is what Door 2 above is showing.
1-0 buydown
$12,826.61
One year at 1% below the note rate, then the full payment.
Funded by $75,000 — $62,173.39 left over.
Monthly saving $1,068.88 (yr 1 at 6.375%), then nothing.
2-1 buydown
$37,921.76
Year one at 2% below, year two at 1% below, then the full payment.
Funded by $75,000 — $37,078.24 left over.
Monthly saving $2,091.26 (yr 1 at 5.375%), $1,068.88 (yr 2 at 6.375%), then nothing.
3-2-1 buydownDoor 2 uses this
$74,668.62
Year one at 3% below, then 2%, then 1%, then the full payment.
Funded by $75,000 — $331.38 left over.
Monthly saving $3,062.24 (yr 1 at 4.375%), $2,091.26 (yr 2 at 5.375%), $1,068.88 (yr 3 at 6.375%), then nothing.
Want these on their own, without a concession figure driving them? Compare buydown structures on their own — the same three, priced as what to ask the seller for.
Cumulative savings, year by year
The temporary buydown wins early and then stops dead — its line goes flat at $74,668.62 once the escrow is spent. The other two keep climbing.
Three lines, one per door: Door 3 · permanent buydown is the solid line, Door 2 · temporary buydown is dashed, and Door 1 · price cut is dotted. The legend under the chart repeats the same patterns.
Side by side
| 1 · Price cut | 2 · Temp 3-2-1 | 3 · Permanent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New list price | $1,925,000 | $2,000,000 — unchanged | $2,000,000 — unchanged |
| Rate | 7.375% | 4.38% / 5.38% / 6.38% → 7.38% | 6.250% (est. 3.21–5.63 points) |
| Monthly saving | $414.41 | $3,062.24 / $2,091.26 / $1,068.88 / $0.00 | $1,199.33 |
| Savings duration | Life of the loan | 3 years, then nothing | Life of the loan |
| Changes underwriting? | No | No | Yes — qualifies at 6.250% |
| Protects the comp? | No — resets it | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | A listing with a traffic problem — nobody is walking through the door. | A buyer who can afford the house but is frightened of year one. | A buyer who cannot qualify at the note rate at all. |
One point costs 1% of the loan — that part is a fixed industry definition. What varies is how much rate a point buys: this tool prices it between 0.20% and 0.35% per point, a band taken from a real pricing pull in September 2026 and revisited by hand rather than fed live — the same pull that set the 6.250% floor, below which points stop buying rate at all and the money is not spent rather than buying a rate nobody quotes. The rate shown sits in the middle of that band, at the blended average the same pull produced — 3.689 points to buy 1.000% of rate — which is why the cost range beside Door 3 straddles the concession rather than ending at it: real pricing on the day could land either side. Estimated range only, not a quote or a commitment to lend. It's based on one lender's actual pricing on a single day in September 2026 for one loan program — real pricing changes daily and depends on your loan program, loan amount, credit profile, and current market conditions. Contact Mike directly for real numbers based on your scenario.
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