--- title: Want to Save Big on a Home Purchase? Look for This Phrase in the Listing description: Realtor.com says value-based wording — like "priced to sell" and "under-valued" — translates into five-figure discounts on home prices. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Julia Glum role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/julia-glum/ bio: Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2018 articles: 453 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - Newsweek - International Business Times - CBS News - Good Morning America - WUSA9 - Pix 11 - The New York Times - Mashable - The Washington Post - CNBC - Politico social: - https://x.com/superjulia - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-glum published: '2024-09-26T14:54:23.000Z' modified: '2024-09-26T14:54:23.000Z' section: Housing tags: - News word_count: 430 canonical: https://money.com/priced-to-sell-home-listing-discount/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![House with sale sticker on it and in the background](https://img.money.com/2024/09/News-Magic-Words-House-Sale.jpg) Just three little words in the description of a home listing can signal a steep discount worth tens of thousands of dollars. For-sale listings with the phrase “priced to sell” come with an average discount of 8.5%, according to an [analysis from Realtor.com](https://www.realtor.com/research/september-2024-priced-to-sell/) released Wednesday. That translates to a reduction of about $38,000 from the median price of a home. “We’ve found that certain ‘value’-based words used in listing descriptions are correlated with lower listing prices — and can be used to help homebuyers find true bargain properties,” wrote Ralph McLaughlin, the site’s senior economist, in the report. The phrase "priced to sell" is real estate jargon to indicate the house is (or should be) a good deal. In some cases, it could be code for "this place is a fixer-upper and needs some TLC." Overall, the analysis found that this kind of value-based wording — which also includes “bargain,” “under valued” and similar key phrases — translated into statistically meaningful discounts on home prices in 38 out of the largest 100 metro areas. Given that [mortgage rates are well above 6%](https://money.com/current-mortgage-rates/), knocking such a large chunk off the home price could provide welcome reprieve for some buyers. ## Where ‘priced to sell’ homes have the biggest discounts Regional factors are certainly at play. The discounts on priced-to-sell houses identified by Realtor.com ranged from 3.2% to 23.1%. The largest discounts associated with the priced-to-sell phrasing were usually in cities across the South and Midwest (though some Southern areas — notably in Florida — actually had some of the smallest discounts). | | **Discount %** | **Median listing price** | **Discount on median price** | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Little Rock, Arkansas | 23% | $249,900 | $57,494 | | St. Louis, Missouri | 18.7% | $264,900 | $49,476 | | Charleston, South Carolina | 15.9% | $499,999 | $79,558 | | Memphis, Tennessee | 14.5% | $299,000 | $43,262 | | Lake County, Illinois | 12.6% | $399,900 | $50,464 | | Nassau County, New York | 12.5% | $759,000 | $94,662 | | Cambridge, Massachusetts | 11.5% | $779,000 | $89,851 | | Tulsa, Oklahoma | 11.4% | $287,500 | $32,801 | | El Paso, Texas | 11.2% | $279,000 | $31,295 | | Witchita, Kansas | 10.9% | $262,000 | $28,655 | _Source: Realtor.com_ On the flip side, the Orlando area had the smallest discount of the metros included in the analysis. Still, looking for “priced to sell” in a listing there could save you 3.2%, or about $13,500 off the typical home. One caveat that McLaughin mentioned is that if you're searching for a house in an area that is inundated with "priced to sell" listings, then you might not be getting much of a discount. The best discounts are in areas where the phrase doesn't appear in every other listing simply as a marketing gimmick. In that case, it pretty much becomes meaningless. "To put it more simply, if a lot of listings were priced to sell," he wrote, "then buyers might not expect a discount or might not be able to tease out whether those listings are actually priced to sell." ## Buy your new home with more convenience and less hassle ### A Mortgage Expert at Rocket Mortgage (NMLS #3030) can lend you a hand for a smoother process. Your dream home is possible. Click below to make it happen. [View Rates](https://money.com/pr/u918d32af718?ap_referrer=%2Fpriced-to-sell-home-listing-discount%2F) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/26681/medium_57f09f10-efb8-487d-a73e-5f7d605144eb.png) Imagine finally owning your dream home — Rocket Mortgage (NMLS #3030) can help! [View Rates](https://money.com/pr/t39f99e0e0ab?ap_referrer=%2Fpriced-to-sell-home-listing-discount%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/priced-to-sell-home-listing-discount/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Housing", "item": "https://money.com/housing/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Home Buying", "item": "https://money.com/home-buying/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Want to Save Big on a Home Purchase? 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