r/MortgageBrokerRates

Got a conventional loan recently? What rate did you actually get, and who did you end up financing with?
Trying to figure out who is giving the most competitive rates right now (or at least as good as it gets given how brutal the market is).

For those who closed recently:

1. Which lender/broker did you go with? (Local credit union, online direct lender, wholesale broker, or major bank?)
2. What rate/APR did you lock in, and did you pay discount points to get it?
3. Did you use seller credits for a permanent buy-down or a 2-1 buydown to make the initial payment manageable?

Appreciate any insights!

Let's not sugarcoat it. The average 30 year fixed rate was 7.57% on Friday, according to Mortgage News Daily. Rates suck right now!

Combine that with today's home prices, and owning a home is out of reach for so many Americans.

The beautiful thing about economics? This move has forced sellers to get creative.

Real estate is very local, so please understand there are plenty of markets where this won't translate. But in a lot of markets, sellers are getting aggressive. And before a price cut, seller credits are a way more powerful tool. It's exactly what builders are using to move their inventory.

That's leverage. But how you take that money matters more than how much it is. Same $25k, wildly different results.

TL;DR

• Concessions first, price cut last. A credit is real money at closing. A price cut gets financed, so you only feel it a few dollars a month.
• Seller paid closing costs: saves cash today, payment unchanged
• Temporary buydown (3/2/1, 2/1, 1/0): lowest payment for 1 to 3 years, then back to normal
• Permanent buydown: lower rate for the life of the loan, usually the biggest long term win
• Price cut: feels great, barely moves the payment. Use it for whatever goes over the concession cap. (Paying cash? Then the price cut is your best move.)
• Your lender matters: lender credits stack with seller credits, but only if your lender has great pricing.

The example deal (priced on a real rate sheet, 10/4/26)

$500k purchase in NC, single family, 1 unit, primary residence, 780+ credit, 20% down, $400k conventional loan (80% LTV), 7.25% 30 year fixed (which comes with a $1,666 lender credit), $5,000/yr taxes, $1,800/yr insurance, $8,028 closing costs (including prepaids). Seller offers $25,000.

Notice the rate: 7.25% with a lender credit, while Friday's average was 7.57%. More on why that matters below.

Full price PITI payment: $3,295/mo all in.

Pricing changes daily and depends on your credit, down payment, state and property. Illustration only.

Rule #1: Concessions first, price cut last

A concession is realized today. All $25k hits the closing table on day one.

A price cut is financed. You only pocket 20% of it up front ($5k less down payment). The other $20k just shrinks your loan, and you get it back a few dollars a month over 30 years.

Value you've actually felt	$25k credit	$25k price cut
At closing	$25,000	$5,000
After year 1	$25,000	$6,637
After year 5	$25,000	$13,186
After year 7	$25,000	$16,461

Seven years in, the price cut still hasn't caught up. The rest sits in your loan balance as equity until you sell or pay it off. And a credit can cover closing costs or buy down your rate. A price cut can't.

Option 1: Seller paid closing costs

Payment: $3,295/mo. It doesn't move. Cash to close drops from $106.4k to $100k.

Catch: a credit can't exceed your actual closing costs. Our buyer only has $6,362 in costs left after the lender credit, so $18,638 would be wasted unless it goes somewhere else.

Option 2: Temporary buydown

Seller money goes into an escrow account that subsidizes your payment early on. Note rate never changes.

Buydown	Cost	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	After
1/0	$3,190	$3,030	$3,295	$3,295	$3,295
2/1	$9,429	$2,775	$3,030	$3,295	$3,295
3/2/1	$18,560	$2,534	$2,775	$3,030	$3,295

With $25k the 3/2/1 fits: $761 less in year 1, $520 less in year 2, $266 less in year 3, and the leftover $6,440 covers the $6,362 of closing costs left after the lender credit. Cash to close: $100k.

Two things: you qualify at the full note rate, and on most programs unused buydown funds get applied to your balance if you sell or refi early.

Option 3: Permanent buydown

The lowest rate on today's sheet is 6.25% and it costs $20,650 (about 5.16 points). The other $4,350 goes toward closing costs.

Payment: $3,030/mo. That's $266 less every month for 30 years.

Real rate sheets aren't a straight line. At 7.25% you get a lender credit of $1,666. Going to 6.25% means giving that up and paying $20,650, so one full point of rate costs about $22,316.

Rate	Points cost (or credit)	P&I
7.250%	$1,666 lender credit	$2,729
7.000%	$5,884	$2,661
6.875%	$8,116	$2,628
6.750%	$10,346	$2,594
6.500%	$15,602	$2,528
6.250%	$20,650	$2,463

Rate	Saves vs 7.25%	Breakeven
7.000%	$68/mo	111 months (9.3 yrs)
6.875%	$101/mo	97 months (8.1 yrs)
6.750%	$135/mo	89 months (7.4 yrs)
6.500%	$201/mo	86 months (7.2 yrs)
6.250%	$266/mo	84 months (7.0 yrs)

Five points is a lot to bake into a rate, and if you refi in a few years you leave most of the value behind. With no lender credit the full $8,028 of closing costs is back, so cash to close is about $103.7k. Permanent buydown takes a really long time to pay for itself.

How many points can you buy? The high cost test.

Not unlimited. Federal rules cap "points and fees" on a Qualified Mortgage at 3% of the loan (loans of $137,958+ in 2026). On $400k that's $12,000, and it's not just discount points: loan officer comp and certain lender fees count too.

Cross 5% ($20k here) and it's a high cost mortgage under federal HOEPA rules. NC has its own high cost law with a similar 5% trigger. Almost no lender will make either.

Good news: discount points paid by the seller are generally excluded from points and fees, and up to two bona fide discount points can be excluded if the starting rate is close to market average.

It depends on how the credit is written and how your lender's compliance team reads it. Some treat a general seller credit that pays for points as buyer paid. Lenders also cap points on their own, which is why this sheet stops at 6.25%.

If the plan is for the seller to buy points, have your lender run the points and fees test before you write the offer.

Option 4: Price cut (last resort)

Payment: $3,159/mo. You save $136 a month.

Same $25k as the permanent buydown, half the savings. It makes sense when the seller is offering more than the concession cap allows, or when the appraisal comes in low and the price has to drop anyway.

Paying cash? Then the price cut wins, hands down. No loan, nothing to finance, no rate to buy down, so every dollar off the price is a dollar you keep. But this community isn't for the cash buyer. If you're financing, the price cut goes last.

The stack: you don't have to pick one

Same $25k, split three ways: $5,884 buys the rate down to 7.00%, $9,323 buys a 2/1 on top, $8,028 covers closing costs, and the last $1,765 can't be used as a credit, so take it off the price.

Result: $2,714 year 1, $2,965 year 2, then $3,228 for good. $68 less forever, and cash to close is $100k.

Below 7.25% there's no lender credit, so all $8,028 of closing costs comes out of the seller's money.

The Lender Lever:

Choosing the right lender can work in your favor as much as the seller's money does.

Lender credits stack with seller credits. A lender with great pricing pays you at a given rate, and that goes on top of whatever the seller gives you. That's max leverage.

Here's what was available on 10/4/26 for this exact deal, on the credit side of the sheet:

Rate	Lender credit to you	P&I
7.250%	$1,666	$2,729
7.375%	$3,462	$2,763
7.500%	$5,138	$2,797
7.625%	$6,774	$2,831

Now watch what that $1,666 does to the 3/2/1 option with the seller's $25k:

Your lender at 7.25%	3/2/1 + closing costs	Seller's $25k covers it?
Great pricing ($1,666 credit)	$24,922	Yes, $78 to spare
Par pricing (no credit)	$26,588	No, you bring $1,588
Pricing 1 point worse	$28,920	No, you bring $3,920

Same house. Same seller. Same rate. A $3,920 swing just from who you picked as your lender.

It works the other way too. Short on cash? Take a slightly higher rate and let the lender credit cover closing costs, so every dollar of the seller's money goes into a buydown.

This works if you're working with a lender with great pricing. I know plenty of retail lenders are going to vote this down. But the reality is people come to this community to learn how to shop for a great mortgage and save money, and this is how you do it.

Lender credits don't count toward the seller concession cap, but total credits can't exceed your actual closing costs and prepaids.

Side by side

Option	Year 1	Long term	Cash to close
Full price	$3,295	$3,295	$106,362
Closing costs	$3,295	$3,295	$100,000
3/2/1 + closing costs	$2,534	$3,295	$100,000
Permanent buydown	$3,030	$3,030	$103,678
The stack	$2,714	$3,225	$100,000
Price cut	$3,159	$3,159	$101,443

Concession caps (where people get burned)

Every loan type caps how much the seller can give you. Our buyer has 20% down on a conventional loan, so the cap is 6% of $500k = $30,000. The $25k offer fits.

The right stack: max out the concession first, and only take a price cut for anything above the cap. If this seller offered $35k, you'd take $30k as a credit and $5k off the price.

Ask your Realtor: write the credit into the contract as a dollar amount "toward buyer's closing costs, prepaids and/or rate buydown." That keeps every option open.

Which one? Step one: ask for a concession, not a price cut. Then ask: how long will I keep this loan?

• Staying 7+ years, not betting on a refi: permanent buydown
• Expecting a raise or a rate drop: temporary buydown
• Tight on cash: closing costs first, the rest toward a buydown

Have your lender run every option with real pricing before you counter. If they only show you one, ask why.

Seller Credit Caps (by loan type and down payment)

Loan	Seller credit cap
Conventional, under 10% down	3%
Conventional, 10% to 25% down	6%
Conventional, over 25% down	9%
Conventional, investment	2%
FHA	6%
VA	4%*

*VA: normal closing costs and discount points generally don't count toward the 4%. Temp buydown funds do. Jumbo caps vary by lender.

Not financial advice. Numbers are estimates; every lender, file and market is different.

Want to see your deal stacked with lender credits?

The Ultra Rate Quote thread is an open marketplace on Reddit's r/MortgageBrokerRates where borrowers post their loan scenario, including loan amount, location, credit score range, and down payment, and vetted mortgage brokers reply directly with competitive, no obligation quotes. It is a fast, transparent way to benchmark pricing. No calls annoying calls, just real wholesale rates.

Drew Fisher, NMLS #44061 | Pure Rate Mortgage LLC, NMLS #2578474. This commentary is for educational purposes and is not a commitment to lend or a guarantee of any rate or term.