Qualified buyers with cold feet need options, not pressure
Cold feet usually hide one specific concern
When a buyer starts second-guessing, my first question is one that’s simple: what changed? Is the payment higher than they expected? Are they worried about spending too much of their savings? Did the inspection turn up something? Do they think they’re overpaying? Did a family member tell them to wait? Are they holding out for lower rates?
Each of those concerns calls for a different conversation, and lumping them together as “cold feet” misses the point. A payment surprise and an inspection surprise can look identical from the brokers perspective, but require completely different fixes.
Sometimes the fix means negotiating a seller credit, changing the loan structure, lowering the price range, keeping more cash in reserve after closing, or simply walking through the numbers again. Other times, the honest answer can be that this isn’t the right house or the right time.
Buyers need options, not rate forecasts
A lot of buyer anxiety comes from trying to predict the future. Buyers want to know where mortgage rates will be next year, whether home prices will fall and whether waiting six months would leave them better off. Nobody can answer those questions with certainty, and I won’t pretend I can. As I’ve argued before, very few people can consistently time interest rates.
What I can do is lay out their options like those given above: We might structure the loan differently; We might use a seller credit to reduce closing costs or buy down the rate; We might lower the purchase price and keep more money in reserve; Or we might decide together to wait.
