If you find a buyer that is not concerned about overpaying for a home, I’ll show you someone who is not actually looking to purchase one, for most homebuyers it is one of their primary concerns. And for good reason.

Overpaying for a home carries signifigant risk, especially if your life situation changes, or if the market takes a turn for the worst.

The good news for buyers in Middle Tennessee is that the market is shifting, and the people purchasing homes are left holding leverage that they’ve not had for many years, creating new opportunities in one of the nations hottest real estate markets.

Starting during the pandemic, the ensuing great migration out of the northeast and west, created some of the most favorable conditions for sellers in Middle Tennessee in the history of the state.

Many places saw 40% increases in property values in just three years, but now as new home builders and devlopers are catching up, the market is slowing down although confusion still exist.

This is a guide to keep you from overpaying for your Middle Tennessee home in 2026, and works from Mufreesboro to Clarksville.

#1–Ask your agent to do a market analysis on the home you are looking to purchase

Most real estate agents are trained in a valuation technique known as a competitive market anayliysis. Agents use this to help home sellers determine what their homes should sell for, but buyer agents should be doing this as well.

The Zillow Home Index—a data set that tracks local real estate markets—shows that 72 percent of Nashville homes were sold for below the asking price. The number in Clarksville is much lower, but is still trending towards an overpriced market.

In a market that is between 48 and 73 percent overpriced, getting your agent to do a market anaylisis on potential homes you want to purchase is more important than ever, and it’s a service your agent should be providing to you.

This does not mean lowball sellers, it means do your research and only pay what you believe the house is actually worth.

#2—Don’t make any decisions out of fear

When the market looses stability and prices are all over the place, it is really important that you are making solid, sound decisions, not quick ones that will cost you money in the long run.

Sometimes fear makes us do crazy things, like overpay for houses. Maybe interest rates dip into the 5’s and your scared if you don’t act now you will loose the rate. Or maybe after looking for 2 months you find the perfect home and your scared someone is going to buy it before you.

To this day, I have not found a good reason to overpay for a home, because there is not one. It doesn’t matter if your looking at $250,000 new builds or a $33 million high rise, buyers do not win by overpaying.

No matter your excuse, decions made from a standpoint of fear are almost always bad ones, and unfortunately it in Middle Tennesse almost everyday.

#3—Look at properties that have been on the market for a while, even if they may be overpriced

Throughout Middle Tennessee, there are around 200 houses everymonth that go off the market without selling, usually because they are overpriced. Often times these sellers have been done dirty by an agent who lied to them about how much their houses are worth, but that doesn’t change the fact they still need to sell the home.

Let’s pretend you are looking at a townhome in Nashville. It was purchased in 2021 for $300,000, got a $40,000 basement completion, and now is on the market for $700,000.

The condo has been on the market for 202 days and the owners have lowered the price to $600,000, but still the property has not sold. The townhome next door, identital to the now $600,000 condo, sold 4 weeks ago for $490,000.

Another slightly smaller condo down the street sold 6 weeks ago for $500,000, and after your agent done their CMA, they believe the fair market value should be $550,000.

Because a $550,000 offer is $150,000 less than the original asking price, and a $50,000 discount on the new lower price, you assume things about the seller and don’t make an offer.

Not making an offer could cost you a great deal, and if a property is 15 percent overpriced, sellers may accept your offer without questions. Don’t be scared to make offers on overpriced properties you like. The worst they can do it say no.

#4—Ask for concessions and make wholistic offers

Concessions have become a major part of home negotiations in Middle Tennesse, largely because of the number of new build houses hitting the market. Because of the prevalance and scope of concessions in the market, I am of the opinon that you should be asking for some sort of concessions almost every single time.

New construction homes are offering insance incentives to buyers. Some of the best offers I’ve seen advertized are $15,000 in buyer concessions, plus 100% of buyers closings cost, and a rate buydown on the mortgage.

Does this mean you should ask for this on every home you make an offer on? Absloutly not, but at a minimum, you should be asking for closing cost and credits for anything you find that is wrong with the property.

Making a wholistic offer—full price + concessions, discount + concessions, discount + quick close—greatly increases your chances of winning the property, largely because there are more points of negotiations. Don’t leave money on the table and be asking for concessions in 2026.

#5—Trust your real estate agent

Your real estate agent is like a doctor, but instead of keeping you in good physical health, they keep you in good financial health. If you don’t trust your agent, you need to find a new one ASAP.

The National Assoiation of Realtors released their 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, and the findings speak for themselves.

• 85% of home buyers used a real estate agent

• 65% of home buyers viewed their agent as the most important source of information

• 77% of home buyers reported a high level of trust in their agents

• 27% of all homes purchased were shown to buyers first by their agent

Working with a knowlagable, local real estate agent—or even better a Realtor—is the easiest way to make sure you are making good decisions. And the best Realtors will help guide you away from situations where you stand to lose.

Hopefully this helps you in your serach for a new home!

Want to know help find your dream home and deal in Middle Tennessee? Get on the calendar and let’s talk about it! Click here to book now! (Virtual meetings available)

Want to see all our Benchmark properties? Check out my website, www.PRENashville.com

Imagine going into your dermatologist office to have them look at a mole.

The doctor walks in and you explain what is going on.

“Doc, this mole has changed size and shape over the last month, I have a family history with melanoma, but I really don’t think it’s something to be concerned about,” you say to the doctor.

The doctor tells you it doesn’t look right and recommends removing it and testing it, just to be safe.

You, however, have been on WebMD, and your friend who was nurse aide10 years ago looked at it and says it’s nothing.

You demand the doctor tell you there is nothing to be concerned about, and say if they don’t tell you there is nothing to be concerned about, you will go find a doctor who will.

How do you think the story ends? Not well, I promise.

The good news is almost no one would do this with their doctor—doctors know things we don’t—but then why do we do it with nearly everything else in our lives?

Practitioners of real estate see this everyday.

Real estate agents spend hours pouring over, often times, more than 300 data points to determine the market value of a property—they tell the client what their home is worth—and the client demands they over price the property or the they will find someone who will.

The property languishes on the market for months, the seller blames the agent for not selling the overpriced house, and the situation starts to feel hopeless.

Today we’re going to cover the 5 most common reasons your house in Middle Tennessee is not selling, and what you can do to make sure your not one of forever listings in the market.

#1—Your home is overpriced

If you forgot, real estate agents work on a commission, which means they have a serious motivation to sell your house for the most money possible. When a real estate agent tells you that your house is worth $550,000 and you are stuck at $899,999—it is not because your agent wants a “quick sale” or to make you take less money for your home than it’s worth—its because no one is going to pay $900,000 for a $500,000 house.

You can see this in the market every single day.

Case Study: The forever condo

In April of this year, there was a four story condominium built in 1983 that was partially renovated in Nashville, which went off-market at $699,000.

The condo was an initally purchased in 2021 with an unfinished basement for $389,000, and was listed for sale initially (post-finished basement) in 2025 for $899,999. That is a nearly 80% increase in the value of the home, and the only thing they did was put about $40,000 into the basement.

While this property was setting on the market like a sore thumb, real estate agents working in the area were using the overpriced condo to sell the other properties available in the area.

The condo next door—shares a wall with the $900,000 condo and nearly identical in every single way—sold in February of 2026 for $570,000 after being on the market for 28 days.

That same month, another very similar condo—build in the same year, but 550 SQFT smaller—sold for $545,000 the same day the listing went live. What does this mean for the overpriced property?

It means it doesn’t sell—and now the neighborhood has cooled down, the condo market is falling—it seriously may not ever sell. And the worse part is the comments in the listing say the seller has already moved to another home, and used a special program to extract the equity out of their current home to purchase the new one. This means this owner is going to have two mortgages for the foreseeable future, and it is not clear what happens with the money they borrowed from the house they are never going to sell.

#2—Your listing sucks

Rather your selling your home on your own or your working with a real estate agent, the description of the property and photos attached to the listing are critical, and people get it wrong a lot.

There are so many examples it is hard to pinpoint just one, but most of the bad property descriptions market single family homes as “investment opportunities” or “as-is no repairs,” both with their own problems, neither of which is going to convince a buyer to purchase your home.

The “investment opportunity” no one is looking for…

Investors use a lot of metrics to determine when they should buy and sell properties that make money, but the data point which carries the most weight is called the “absorption rate”—how quickly residential properties are selling in a given area, also known as months inventory—and it is shifting in most of Middle Tennessee.

An absorption rate higher than 33% means it is a full on sellers market, buyers are fighting for properties, sellers are pricing high and selling quick, and it becomes an investors paradise. In Middle Tennessee, this peaked in 2022, where buyers could purchase a property today and sell it tomorrow for a profit. Those days are gone.

Today the absorption rate is 18.5%—just two points away from a full on buyers market—and it is trending down. Combined with President Trump’s ban on institutional investment in single family homes means an investor is not looking to purchase your single family home and regular home buyers are not looking for an “opportunity.”

“As-is” = big problems

Properties are marketed “as-is” when a property is distressed—it needs repairs, it has a tax lien, the pool doesn’t work—and it’s a red flag for buyers. When a property is marketed “as-is, owner will make no repairs,” it’s a signal for buyers to avoid the property at all cost. But in Middle Tennessee everyday, great properties—some less than 5 years old with nothing on the property disclosure—are marketed “as-is” and it’s like telling sellers: “DO NOT BUY THIS HOUSE.”

#3—You are not creating a good enough “offer” for buyers…

When the market was on fire between 2021 and 2023, home builders in Middle Tennessee went into overdrive, pumping out homes as fast as possible in Nashville/Davidson County and Clarksville/Montgomery County specifically. These new builds are hard to compete with for one simple reason: concessions.

Concessions are money from the sellers proceeds that are paid back to the buyer for any reason. Often times concessions are made to cover the closing cost for buyers, but with new builds they are covering a lot more than inspection fees.

Many new builds are advertised on Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and the like, with seller concessions in the property description.

“Seller offering up to $30,000 for new appliances, back yard fence, screened in porch, etc…”

“Seller will pay 100% of closing cost, plus $15,000 concessions to buyer…”

“Seller will pay $10,000 in concessions to buyer, 100% of closing cost, plus 2-point rate buy down…”

This is the case with nearly all new builds, with concessions only limited by the bank or loan servicer, and it is happening every single day in Middle Tennessee.

Does this mean you should give someone $30,000 to buy your pre-owned home? Absolutely not!

Most buyers prefer older homes, properties with mature trees and character, but when you are looking at $7,000 of out of pocket savings—on top of your down payment—by purchasing a new-build over a preexisting home, the decision is to easy: you buy the new build.

The truth is buyers in Middle Tennessee are not dying for new appliances or a fenced in back yard, they just want their closing cost paid for, which is not $30,000. Most pre-existing homes can easily compete with new builds simply by putting “seller concessions available” in the listing. In today’s market is can be the difference between a quick close and not selling the property.

Case study: The broken in new build—a dirty trifecta

In April of this year a property that was built in 2021 went off the market after 180 days in Clarksville. The home was initially overpriced at $399,000, but was down to $365,000 by the time the listing expired, below market value.

There is no good reason this home should not have sold, until you look at the listing. When you do, it becomes clear why the property did not sell. The home was marketed as an investment opportunity, as-is with no seller repairs, and no concessions as part of the deal.

Investment Opportunity

This property is not an investment opportunity. It does not need substantial repairs, the rent that the property would bring is less than what the mortgage would be, and it is about 2 miles away from most retail locations. This home will be bought by a family, not an investor.

As-is, no seller repairs

This house was built in 2021. The required disclosures on the property is free of any concerns, the pictures of the property show it is in good condition, and did I mention it was built five years ago?

Concessions are a must in this case

This home is in a new build neighborhood with 9 never-before-lived-in properties for sale on the same street. If you aren’t offering seller concessions, even with a cheaper price, there is no reason a buyer would choose your 5 year old home over its 6 month old identical twin.

Eveyone looses…

The situation with this property is a perfect illustration of why picking the right agent is so critically important for home sellers. In this case not only did the agent’s actions result in the home not selling, it virtually guaranteed the home will never sell.

Compounding the situation, the home belongs to a soldier who has been sent out of Fort Campbell, meaning the home now starting to look more like the description. The yard is unkept, the utilities have been shut off, and maintenance is not being done, all on a house less than 5 years old.

With the right agent, the seller could have walked away with money in their pocket, and now they are going to go in the hole to get rid of the house, or not sell it at all.

#4—Your trying to do it by yourself

There is nothing wrong with selling your house on your own, and in some rural areas, it may be a no brainer. The home is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it, there have only been a couple properties sold in your community in the last decade, and there is probably already someone who wants to buy it—if this is you, why would you hire an agent?

Unfortunately, that does not describe very many places in Middle Tennessee, which has become one of the most competitive markets in the United States.

The data on this can be confusing, but when you look at it as a whole, it is clear buyers are depending on their real estate agents to steer their home search.

According to the National Association of Realtors:

• 46% of all buyers did an online search for properties as their “first step”

• 85% of all buyers utilized a real estate agent

• 77% of buyers regarded real estate agents as a useful sources of information

• 52% of buyers found the property they bought on the internet

• 27% of buyer found the property they bought because their real estate agent found the home

Looking at this holistically, this means that buyers are finding properties on the internet, and then asking their real estate agents for advice, and from a practical standpoint “for sale by owner” properties can be risky for represented buyers.

While not everyone is going to talk about it, the reality is many property owners selling their houses are looking for a cash buyer that does not exist, and are openly hostile to represented buyers or buyers getting a mortgage.

This means someone who buys a house sold by the owner is almost certain to have significantly increased closing cost, meaning no one is even going to seriously consider the property.

Another thing is many “for sale by owners” are trying to avoid paying a commission, with many refusing to pay any commissions to anyone, which means a represented buyer is going to have to pay their agent out of pocket. When none of the other properties on the market require that, your house is out of the running from the beginning.

Finally, you may list the property on Zillow, but that doesn't mean people are looking at your home.

What people don’t see when they hire an agent is the expansive network of buyer and seller agents talking everyday, trying to put deals together for their clients. At Benchmark Realty, there is a group with agents communicating every day from Georgia to Kentucky. Every brokerage has a similar set-up.

When you list alone, you loose crucial exposure, and in an environment where 85% of buyers are represented, 77% are depending on what their agents tell them, and 23% are choosing houses selected by their agents—the for sale by owner looses almost every single time.

#5—You don’t trust your agent

When I was in retail sales management the number one issue I had was getting my employees to tell me what is actually going on. Someone in their past has made talking about what is wrong or right such a difficult conversation they avoid it, costing precious money and time in the process. They don’t trust me, even though I’ve given the no reason not to. This happens in real estate, too.

So many sellers have built the foundation of their relationship with a agent on distrust that it corrupts every step of the process.

Sellers are fighting their agent on price, on concessions, on open houses, on marketing approach, on commission rates… the list is endless. The entire relationship is built on a cycle of dishonest market analysis, combined with a salesperson’s desire not to get into an argument with their client. This cost people more money and time than anything else in the residential real estate market.

If you don’t trust your agent then sell the house on your own or find a different one.

If you don’t want to pay a agent what they are worth, you get what you pay for. I always ask commission weary sellers; which is more important to you, how much you pay me or how much you get for your house?

If your agent is scared of you, everyone is screwed, not the least of which is you.

Find someone you like to work with, trust them, and sell your home.

Conclusions

Selling a house can be incredibly stressful, or it cannot be, you get to choose.

There is no shortage of people running around with their hair on fire talking about how the market is crashing. The market is NOT crashing, it is adjusting.

Middle Tennessee saw an explosion of domestic migration, especially in 2022, as people in states like New York, Illinois, and California fled for various reasons amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

An overwhelming number of those migrators landed in three cities—Nashville, Miami, and Austin—all markets seeing adjustments, and mistakenly being called a “crash.”

Talking to real estate market watchers, it seems that people were using houses as short-term investments, akin to get-rich-quick schemes. And some people did, a lot of people overpaid, and that is what some people are basing their “crash” theories around.

When you only make $150,000 of profit on your home investment in 5 years, as opposed to a $350,000 profit in the same time, that is NOT A CRASH. But continuing to overprice properties by 50-70% will eventually cause real harm to home values.

Don’t be greedy, be realistic, and selling your home will be a breeze.

Thanks for reading and happy selling!

Want to know why your house didn’t sell in Middle Tennessee? Get on the calendar and we can talk about what went wrong, and how it can be fixed! Click here to book now!

Want to see all our Benchmark properties? Check out my website, www.PRENashville.com