08/01/2026
UNDER CONTRACT 🔑
New construction has a reputation for being the easy button. Walk into the model home, meet the sales rep, sign the builder’s paperwork, pick your finishes. And honestly, it can be that smooth. But smooth and protected aren’t the same thing.
Here’s what I want more buyers to know: the person at the desk in that model home is very good at their job, and their job is representing the builder. That’s not a criticism, it’s just the arrangement. You’re allowed to bring your own agent into that conversation, and in almost every case it costs you nothing to do it.
My client is one of the most numbers-driven buyers I’ve worked with. He’d done the research, he knew what he wanted, and he was fully prepared to walk. So we treated a new build like any other negotiation.
Highlights:
• $15,000 in seller-paid closing costs, structured so it could go toward buying points instead of just absorbing fees ✅
• He kept his own lender rather than defaulting to the builder’s in-house option 🤝
• A full inspection with our inspector, on a home the builder doesn’t typically open up that way 🔍
• Written commitment on defects and cosmetic touch-ups from the blue tape walk 🏡
• A closing date set around his timeline
None of that was sitting on the table when we started. All of it came from asking, and from being willing to hear no a few times first.
If you’re touring new construction this year, the thing to understand is that the contract in front of you was written by the builder, for the builder. That’s normal. It’s also negotiable more often than people assume. You can use your own lender. You can ask for more toward closing. You can ask what happens if the inspection turns something up.
You just have to know to ask, and it helps to have someone in your corner who does this every week.
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Cara Benak
The Costigan Group | Compass Tennessee
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