Why Are San Antonio Home Sellers Getting Desperate?

So back in 2021, one in three homes in San Antonio sold over asking, and that has completely changed now. And although it is still happening, it's only about one in 10 homes is selling for over the original listing price. So this video, we're going to talk about why that happened, how it can affect you as a home seller, and also how you can take advantage of this as a buyer. This is a video that every seller in San Antonio should watch before listing their home. So back in 2021, we all were going through some crazy, crazy time. I mean, it was a pandemic. There was just all kinds of weird things going on in the world, quite honestly. And housing was no, no question, something that we'd never seen before with the massive increases in prices and the amount of people that were looking at buying homes, interest rates being the lowest they've ever been. I mean, it was just the wild, wild west of housing, honestly. And when you looked at selling your home, you were listing it on Friday, you'd have multiple offers come Sunday. And you know, it was just like a free for all of, see how high you can go. But today that same house, you know, same neighborhood, same condition, just great home that would have gotten multiple, multiple offers gone, you know, 20, 30, 40, $50,000 over asking or more in some cases. Today is taking about three months to actually get an offer on it. And there is a flood of changes that have happened in the real estate market in San Antonio that have caused all this. So overall at San Antonio in early 2026 ranked as the second worst market for the total number of what we would call stale listings. And that means that over half of all the active listings on the market have been sitting on the market with outgoing under contract for over 60 days. And then when you're looking at the pricing side of things, about 80% of all listings are selling for below asking price and only nine to 10% are selling for over asking. So it's almost a foregone conclusion that these buyers are coming in and making lower offers on these homes, especially the ones that have been sitting for those 60 plus days. That leverage that you had as a seller back in 2021 has shifted completely in the opposite direction. And now it is all in the buyer's favor. And we'll walk through a real deal here in a second and kind of explain the ins and outs of it and kind of where you can make good decisions versus bad decisions as a seller that really hurt or help your chances. And a lot of the problems are starting right at a competitor to your home sale that, you know, sometimes you may not have thought was that big of a deal. Every buyer is looking at neighborhoods, they're looking at areas first, and then they're finding the houses in those areas. Think about you as you're looking to buy a new house, you're going to go on to Zillow or Redfin or realtor.com, or even our website, LifeInSATX.com. And they are searching for homes within their criteria, four bedroom, five bedroom, 2,000 plus square feet, 3,000 plus square feet in a certain neighborhood, certain area, they kind of draw the map and that's what pops up. So what happens when buyers see what's right next door to it, whether it's another resale listing that's priced at 20,000, 30,000 below yours, and it's the exact same square footage versus a new construction neighborhood that is right across the street from yours, or new builds that are within the same neighborhood that you're trying to sell your house at. We talk about it a lot on this channel, but these builders are giving crazy, crazy incentives right now, some to the range of $50,000 plus that they're putting into these homes to get them sold, whether it's with, you know, upgrades to the house, I mean, any number of things, closing cost assistance. I mean, the total numbers can range between 30 to $50,000 plus in some situations. And that is just hard to compete with as a resale home seller, because you cannot possibly give them that same incentive package, right? So these buyers are looking at homes and they're saying, okay, your house, although it was only one or two years old, it looks the same as this brand new house, because you've kept it up really well. Yours is listed at $300,000, but there is this new build, $350,000, and I need a better interest rate, and they're gonna pay my closing costs. And I just want a new home because I would rather live in this brand new home. And I'd have about the same payment because of the interest rate incentive. They're gonna go to that new home nine times out of 10. It is very, very rare that you're gonna get somebody to go to that cheaper home unless they're paying cash for it, and the incentives don't really matter to them. As with the new construction homes in your neighborhood, you just have to be paying attention to everything that is around your house as you're trying to sell it, whether it's other homes that are listed for sale, other homes that have recently sold, obviously that's what an appraiser is going to use to comp your home. So if you don't have any home sales that support your listing price, then you're gonna have to reduce the price, because as soon as you get somebody under contract, if you ever do at that price, you're going to have to convince that appraiser that your house is worth what you have agreed to sell a house for. And just overall, competing with the builder is gonna be very, very challenging. So you have to be very aggressive in finding a good way to market your home as a better option than these new builds are. And now these are all things that we as your real estate agent team here in San Antonio will help walk you through. My name is Michael McCall, I run the Life and SATx Home Group. We are a small group of dedicated individuals that really strive to make your experience buying here or selling here in San Antonio as smooth as possible. So we would love to discuss whatever it is that you have to do, whether it's moving, selling, downsizing, retiring, whatever the case may be. Anything you need as far as real estate in San Antonio, we're here to help. Whether it's in two days or two years, we're here to help you plan that long-term move and make things happen. So we'd love to get on a call with you guys. Feel free to shoot us a text call or email us at any point in time. You can also schedule a call with us directly at the Calendly link in the description below. And we will have an in-depth conversation about exactly what you need and make sure that you're going on the right path for that. Okay. Now let me walk you through a real deal that I actually just recently went through. Okay. So this was a house that it was a client of mine, actually. So a client of mine that we'd been looking for houses for a while, found a couple that were okay, but there was always just something that was wrong with it. Whether it was bad foundation, wasn't kept up right, overpriced, many, any number of things, not in a great neighborhood. Lots of different aspects that we couldn't just find the exact right house. Well, then we found one. The brand new listing, whenever we went to it, it had a couple of different offers already on it. It was turnkey. It was clean. It was in a good neighborhood. As you walk through that house, there was nothing you could find wrong with it. The layout was good. The price seemed right. And it was just a little bit out of my client's price range was the problem. We tried to negotiate a little bit, trying to get that price down just a smidge. And we did get it a little bit down just because my client was very well qualified. And they went with our offer. Well, get the inspection, go through all that, find out the roof is shot. It's got solar panels on it too. That makes this even worse. We went back to the seller, told them, Hey, we need this roof to be replaced in order to move forward with this contract. They were not super willing to do that at first. But when we agreed to, because we only had the offer or the sales price about 5,000 below what the actual asking price was, in order to get the new roof, we did agree to go back up to the original list price, which again, it's only $5,000. It wasn't a huge thing. And for a brand new roof, it made sense. Um, but the biggest thing that I want to talk to you guys about this was that that seller made the quick decision knowing that he had a buyer in hand. They were willing and ready to move forward with this house. They were going to have to replace the roof, no matter what every single buyer that comes through is going to see that roof and see it as a problem. And that goes with everything, not just the roof. If the siding is bad on it needs to be replaced. If there's, you know, flooring that is damaged, water damage, if there's, you know, uh, water damage anywhere else, water here is bad. HVAC is bad. I mean, all these things that make the house, you know, what it needs to be. So they could have backed out and said, no, we're not going to replace the roof. I could have gone back on the market, tried to go maybe back to one of those other offers they got, but the roof situation is still going to be there. And there's always a stigma when you come back on market and you see, okay, this house was under contract, came back on market. We call them, uh, why did the house come back on market? Oh, it was an issue with the inspection. What was it? The roof? Like, oh, great. Well, now you've just immediately ruined your leverage. You know, that this roof needs to be replaced. Even if you did replace that roof and then go back on market, you're still going to have that stigma of had to go off market, back on market. And it's just never as good as that super fresh listing that was done right in the first place. So this is what you need to pay attention to as a seller. You need to look at these things from the very beginning. You need to know, okay, I need to replace my roof. I know that for a fact, or anything that really makes a negative first impression is going to drastically impact your ability to sell that home, um, for what the true market value of that home should be. The market values that you're seeing with the comps, those are probably turnkey houses. The homes that are selling right now are the ones that are turnkey. Now there is a lot of variances with that. And those are all things that we can kind of discuss, but that is why it is important to do this work ahead of time, because you're going to have to do it. Eventually you get into a contract with somebody, you're going to have to do that work eventually. So you might as well just get it done now and get that household quicker, um, than you were originally expecting to. This concept kind of runs into that mindset that you have to have. This is, this is not the same market as it was five years ago, because five years ago, it didn't matter which house looked like you list it as long as it was in a decent area. And it wasn't a complete dump. It would get multiple offers and sell very quickly because those rates were two to 3% in a lot of cases. And VA loans, I know some people that have lower than 2% rates, which is just insane. Uh, but the, the big thing too, is that, you know, you have to, um, make sure that you're not using that period to make your judgments on this period. You can't just list a house for $20,000 over asking or market value what the, you know, your neighbor's homes are selling for and expect, okay, we're just going to play that game. Let's list a little bit high. So if somebody makes an offer and if they make an offer, 10 or $20,000 below, we're where we need to be. It's not how that works. People don't do that. Um, people look at the houses for what they're worth. The other thing too, is that you cannot expect the house to just move right. Just by throwing it on the market. Okay. You've got to do all the things ahead of time to get the house ready to sell. I want to be able to live in that house, but you also want to sell that house. You need to treat that home as a showpiece and have it ready to go at a moment's notice for whenever people are wanting to come see the house. It's just part of making such a big investment like this. People are seeing houses that are true model home quality. Um, especially if they're considering new builds, in addition to your house, you want to make sure your house competes with those homes and get it staged and, um, you know, set up appropriately. So we have to do all the things ahead of time now to get these homes in perfect condition or an as perfect condition as you can. Back in 2021, I saw people paying a hundred thousand plus dollars over asking price for things that I've seen houses that, you know, in 2019 sold for 300,000 in 2021 sold for 500,000. And, you know, those are, you know, those times are long gone. This, this kind of appreciation has not happened in a long time in the last four years since the peak, which was, you know, around this time, four years ago in 2022, um, the appreciation has been minimal. It's there in certain areas, but there's also certain areas where there's been depreciation and that prices have gone down. So you really have to look at your micro market and the comps that have sold in your neighborhood and only in your neighborhood, if you can, um, because each individual neighborhood can be drastically different than a neighborhood right across the street. And in those differences within the neighborhoods, that doesn't necessarily mean that now is a terrible time to sell either. So it is a, it is a more difficult time to sell. If you have a home that is basically just standard spec home that you bought two, three years ago, okay. You, you could be taking a big loss and I've seen plenty of people do that. However, the, the homes that are turnkey, that are unicorns that, you know, have been updated and upgraded and just meticulously cared for in a neighborhood that maybe has older homes. Those homes are selling super, super fast. Now, um, I can tell you in several situations that I've had with sellers that, you know, we've listed the home and got multiple offers within 24 hours. Um, and again, I want to emphasize this. This does not mean the market is bad for sellers right now. This is just more of what a normal real estate market is. So we're kind of resetting our expectations back to what they were before all the craziness of 2020 to 2022 happened. A lot of buyers I have right now are looking for very specific types of homes. They are waiting for those homes to come on the market. They're seeing, they've seen everything that are out there or just kind of patiently waiting for those new listings to pop up. And then when those new listings pop up, just like there are several other buyers looking for probably those exact same listings. Those really, really good houses are going to sell very quickly. You see that constantly at multiple clients that have come into town and been watching homes for a couple of weeks, homes that listed a week ago, already under contract because they were good, clean, well-priced houses. Typical buyer's market is considered six months of inventory or more. Again, we're not at that. Our days on market is around three months. So we're kind of in that balanced market stage. It's just, again, it's micro markets here. It's not a big overarching thing. San Antonio has tens of thousands of listings right now. And if you look at the specific neighborhoods and neighborhoods like the West side, where you have a lot of new construction going on, those homes are selling a lot more challenging right now. If you look at markets like Stone Oak or Shavano Park or Hill Country Village, and you have a really good turnkey house at a great price, those are selling very, very quickly. And in some cases, over asking price. I recently had a house in that North Central area, Shavano Park area that sold for $50,000 over asking price in 24 hours. So that is a big thing that can occur if you're in the right area. So after everything we've talked about, this is the tactical piece of information that you need to know as a seller of what is going to really take for you to get your home sold. Okay. So step one is price. Of course, you cannot do anything if your house is overpriced because it's going to keep people out the door. Okay. Once you figure out the price, exactly, you need to figure out before you even list this house, how a buyer is going to see things. That's how I do. Whenever I walk into a house, I walk in as a buyer's agent. And as a buyer myself, I'm going to try to pick out everything that's going to be a problem. I'm going to look at the clutter. I'm going to look at the condition of the home. I'm going to look at the HVAC in the roof. I'm going to look at, you know, I've got a pool, the condition of the pool, the exterior landscaping, siding, caulking, baseboards, flooring, everything. Okay. And if we can find something wrong with it, that is going to turn off a buyer. If they see some water damage on the floors that they know, I'm going to have to replace the floors. They don't want to deal with the water damage. They're going to move on. You got a house that needs to be completely repainted because, you know, it's just lots of dings and dents from the kids. Like, you know, yeah, it's going to cost some money to do some of these things. But these cosmetic items is what gets people's attention as they walk into your home. And you want that first impression. You never get a second chance at a first impression. You want that first impression to be the wow impression. That's what buyers are looking for. When they walk into the house, they want to know that that is their house. And there's only a couple of ways that you can do that. And that is by setting your house up perfect from the beginning and them already having that expectation when they walk in that house that is in the price point they want in the area they want. And as long as the condition matches how good the pictures look, which marketing is a huge thing, then they are going to love that home. And this market, there are two paths. There's the path where you list it wrong from the beginning and you're just chasing your tail and kind of chasing yourself down on price from the very beginning. And there's the market where, you know, you list it right, you're in an area that's going to generate a lot of buyers naturally, and you take advantage of that fully and you sell it very, very quickly. Now, I want to caveat this. You can do everything right and if your house is not in the right area or not the right neighborhood, it is still going to take a while to sell it. It is just the way that things are right now. You'll be able to see the inventory in the market. I always look at how many homes were listed over the last year that did not sell. I look at how many homes have sold in the last three months and you can see kind of the trends from a year ago to now. Are they trending in the right direction in that neighborhood, trending in the wrong direction? Ultimately, you can do everything right and your house is still going to sit a long time if you're in a neighborhood that is not selling quickly right now. It's just the nature of real estate. Now, as a buyer, again, I kind of mentioned this is kind of more favorable to a buyer's market right now. And there are certain things that you definitely can do to take advantage for your personal situation, right? If you know that you're looking at an area that is maybe a little bit more stagnant, you have a lot more options to look at. You can be more patient. You can also negotiate a little bit harder. You can get those closing cost coverage. As looking at new construction, think about this. Looking at new construction, like I mentioned, on the flip side, as a seller, it's challenging, but as a buyer, yeah, you could go get that brand new house for $350,000, but why not spend $50,000 less on your house? You never know what's going to happen in one to two years. Life happens. Sometimes you have to sell. Buy that existing home for a lower price. Negotiate some concessions on that $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 towards concession. Get the max allowable seller concessions that you can get and put it towards a rate buy down. Get the seller to pay for that for you and get a much better interest rate. And you'll have a better payment than you would even on a new construction house, especially if it's a home that has been cared for for the last two or three years and the seller's got to get moving. You're going to get a better price. Your payment's going to actually be lower and you're going to be in a better situation in the next one to two years than you would have in that other new house if something changes. And you also have the ability as a buyer, if you're willing to make some upgrades and get a house that is in a little bit of disrepair, you can get a really good deal right now because there are very few people that are looking at those homes. And those are the types of opportunities where you can really jump on it just because you're willing to put in the work that maybe the seller wasn't able to, whether it's for elderly, financial situation, flat didn't want to because they just wanted to get rid of the house and they weren't doing work. I mean, there's a million different opportunities and things that you can kind of find as a buyer right now on those homes that need a lot of work. And so if you're willing to do that kind of thing, you can buy a house, put in some elbow grease, and up that value of that home pretty quickly just with some minor cosmetic and cleanup things. And that is the ultimate piece of advice that I would say out of this entire video is just to make sure that it's ready to go before you pull that trigger and make it go live. So if you are thinking about listing and selling your home, I would love to have a conversation with you. Again, myself and the Life and SATx Home Group, we specialize in this kind of thing, especially within San Antonio and the suburb areas, Bernie, New Braunfels, LaVernia, anywhere around the San Antonio market. So shoot us an email, give us a call, text message, whatever your preferred method of communication is. You can also schedule a call with us directly and we can kind of take it from there. And if you're looking at even more deep dives into maybe why your neighbor's house sold in two weeks and yours has been sitting on the market for months and a couple other things that would be interesting for a buyer or seller right now, take a look at this video right here. And until the next one guys, we'll see you there.