How big are builder incentives in Frisco right now?

The conversation about new construction competing with resale in North Dallas has been happening for several years now, but in 2026 the pressure has a dollar figure attached to it, and resale sellers who do not know that figure are negotiating blind. Across Frisco, Prosper, and Celina, D.R. Horton and M.I. Homes have been among the most aggressive in their incentive structures, and what they are offering is not cosmetic (NTREIS, 2026).

D.R. Horton has been offering up to $30,000 to $45,000 in closing cost assistance on select Frisco and Prosper communities, paired with a 2/1 rate buydown that brings the first-year effective rate to approximately 4.99% on qualifying loans (D.R. Horton, 2026). That is not a teaser rate in the fine print. That is a real first-year payment, and it is the payment a buyer is running the math on when they are sitting at your open house with your resale priced at $650,000. M.I. Homes has been advertising rate locks to 4.875% through their preferred lender on select inventory homes, a number that the broader mortgage market has not seen without builder assistance since rates moved higher (M.I. Homes, 2026; Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 2026).

There is a real cost to a builder’s incentive package that a resale seller must understand at the outset. The average build time from contract to close on a production home in Frisco and the surrounding growth corridors runs approximately nine months, sometimes longer depending on the community and the builder’s current backlog (Texas Real Estate Research Center, 2026). A buyer who signs a builder contract today does not move in until spring or summer of next year at the earliest. That nine-month gap is the resale’s most powerful advantage, but only if the resale is priced and presented to make that advantage feel worth paying for.

Frisco resale versus new construction by price tier

The table below reflects the competitive landscape as of mid-2026. Days on market figures are median estimates drawn from NTREIS MLS data for closed Frisco sales within each price range. Builder incentive figures reflect packages actively advertised in the Frisco and Prosper growth corridors at the time of publication (NTREIS, 2026; Redfin, Frisco TX 2026).

Source: (NTREIS, 2026) for days on market; (Redfin, Frisco TX 2026) for price tier distribution. Builder incentive figures reflect packages circulating in Frisco and Prosper communities as of July 2026 and are subject to change with each builder incentive cycle.

The middle tier, $650,000 to $900,000, is where the competition is most direct and most consequential for a resale seller. Builders are competing hard for that buyer with meaningful financial incentives, and a resale in that range that has not accounted for those incentives in its pricing will sit while builders across town close. The luxury tier above $900,000, and especially above the $1 million mark that defines true North Dallas luxury, sees less direct builder spec competition and rewards presentation and positioning more than it rewards aggressive cutting.

How builders set their price, and why that is your real comp

Production builders price to velocity. At any given time, a large-volume builder like D.R. Horton or M.I. Homes has a closing schedule tied to their fiscal quarter, a number of standing spec homes that need to move before they start the next phase, and a sales team with monthly targets. When a quarter is running soft, incentives go up. When a community is nearly sold out, incentives come down. A resale seller who treats a builder’s list price as a stable comp is working with a number that can shift month to month based on a builder’s internal inventory math rather than the true market.

The concept that most resale sellers miss is what we call the effective buyer cost. A builder listing a home at $650,000 with a $35,000 incentive package, including closing cost assistance, a rate buydown, and design center credits, is not really competing against your resale at $650,000. The buyer’s out-of-pocket and their monthly payment are being calculated against the builder’s $615,000 effective cost. If your resale is listed at $650,000 with standard seller terms, you are not competing with a $650,000 home. You are competing with a $615,000 home that also happens to be brand new.

That math changes everything about how you set a price. Your number is not the builder’s list price minus a small adjustment for condition. It is the builder’s list price minus the full incentive package, then plus the premium a motivated buyer will genuinely pay for immediate possession, an established lot, mature landscaping, and the certainty of not managing a build-phase relationship with a builder’s sales team for the better part of a year. That last premium is real, but it has to be earned by condition and presentation, not assumed because your home is already built.

Greatness is demonstrated, not declared. This is the math we put in front of every Frisco seller we represent, because the number means nothing without showing how it was derived.

“Builders are competing hard right now with rate buydowns down in the fours. A resale seller who prices right, shows like a model home, and targets the buyer with a real deadline will beat that builder every time. The buyer who can wait nine months already chose new construction.”

Why overpricing week one is permanent damage

In a market where buyer attention is highest in the first seven to fourteen days after a home goes live, overpricing is not a starting position you can negotiate down from without cost. It is a signal to every agent previewing your listing that something is wrong, and a price reduction carries a stigma that follows the listing on the MLS for every subsequent buyer and their agent to see. A home that started at $700,000 and reduced to $675,000 after thirty days is not a $675,000 home in most buyers’ minds. It is a $700,000 home that could not sell. The perception gap is difficult to recover from, and in Frisco, where builder communities are actively watching the resale inventory for pricing signals, it is even harder. The first price is the only price that carries full credibility.

What “show like a model home” actually means

The phrase is easy to say. What it requires in practice is specific, and it starts with a fact that is easy to underestimate: the buyer walking through your Frisco resale may have spent Saturday morning in a builder’s model home. That model home had fresh paint, new counters, a front door stained within the last month, light switches and outlet covers that have never been touched by a finger, and a professional staging package designed to make every room feel both aspirational and immediately inhabitable.

Your resale is competing with that memory. If a buyer’s first impression of your home is that it feels lived in, slightly worn, or in need of updates that the builder’s model home clearly did not require, the gap between your asking price and what they are willing to offer widens. It has to, because they are pricing in the work they would need to do to bring your home to the same standard they just walked through down the street.

The specific items that move the needle

The five items below are not optional upgrades. In a market where builders are spending hundreds of thousands staging and finishing model homes to create a perfect first impression, these are the minimum requirements for a resale to compete:

Fresh interior paint in neutral, modern tones typically costs $3,000 to $6,000 depending on home size, and the perceived value return is the difference between a buyer who walks in and thinks “this feels new” and one who starts mentally cataloging what needs to be repainted. That perceived-value gap is worth far more than the cost of the paint job, and in direct competition with new construction, it is one of the fastest ways to close the presentation gap.

Professional staging costs $2,000 to $5,000 for a full home and consistently recovers dramatically at close. In a market where a buyer is comparing your resale to a builder’s furnished model, staging is not a luxury, it is a competitive requirement. An unstaged home in this environment is giving up the first impression before the buyer has sat down.

Landscaping refresh, including fresh mulch, edged beds, and annual color plantings at the entry, runs $500 to $1,500 and brings your curb appeal to within range of the builder model’s manicured lot. The builder has a professional landscaping team maintaining their model homes daily. Your first impression from the street is where the sale starts, and a buyer who is excited walking up the driveway is already leaning toward a yes before they open the door.

HVAC service plus documentation is one that most sellers overlook and most buyers will ask about. A new-construction home comes with a new system. Your resale needs to make a buyer feel equivalent comfort, which means a recent service record, a clean filter, and a technician’s report confirming the system is in good condition. The cost is minimal; the peace of mind it provides is significant when the alternative is a builder guaranteeing everything is under a year old.

Deep clean including light switch plates, vents, grout, and baseboard edges costs a few hundred dollars professionally done and removes the most common telltale signs that a home has been lived in. Buyers notice the small things, especially buyers who just walked a model home that has never had a single family living in it. The fresh stain on the front door and the clean light switches are not details, they are the proof of the condition claim your listing photos will make (NAR Profile of Home Staging, 2023).

How do I price my resale home against a builder’s incentives?

The process for pricing a Frisco resale in 2026 requires three inputs, not one. Most automated tools and many agents use only the first: recent closed comparable sales within a mile or two, adjusted for square footage and condition. That is a necessary input. It is not a sufficient one in a market where builders are actively competing for the same buyer pool.

The second input is the builder’s current incentive structure for the communities nearest to your home. That means knowing not just the builder’s list price, but what package they are offering this quarter, because the effective buyer cost, what the buyer is actually spending to get into a comparable new home, is the number your resale is competing against. If D.R. Horton is listing at $640,000 with a $32,000 incentive package, the resale ceiling in that neighborhood is not $640,000. It is the builder’s effective cost of $608,000, plus the premium a buyer will genuinely pay for the advantages your resale offers.

The third input is what that immediate-possession premium is actually worth to the specific buyer pool your home will attract. For a relocating buyer from California or Canada with a hard move-in date tied to a school enrollment deadline or a job start date, that premium is real and quantifiable. For a first-time buyer with complete flexibility who is simply excited about getting a new home, it may be smaller than you think. Understanding which buyer your home will attract, and pricing to their actual decision calculus, is the difference between a price that moves and a price that sits.

The formula

The practical ceiling for your resale price can be framed this way: take the closest comparable builder’s list price, subtract the full incentive package value, then add a genuine and defensible immediate-possession premium based on your specific home’s advantages, your neighborhood, your lot, and your school zone. That result is your ceiling. Your starting list price should sit at or slightly below it, not above it, because a resale that requires a buyer to bridge a gap above the builder’s effective cost without a compelling reason to do so will simply push that buyer back across town to the builder’s sales office (NAR, 2026).

We do not use Zestimate. We do not use the price-per-square-foot of a sale from eight months ago when rates were different and builder incentive packages were lighter. We look at the builder floorplan, the builder’s current incentives, and the real closed resale comps together, because all three of those things are in the buyer’s browser tab when they are making their decision.

Which buyers choose a resale home over a new build?

The single most important insight for a Frisco resale seller competing against new construction is this: most of your real prospects are not choosing between your home and a builder community because they have evaluated both and prefer yours. They are choosing your home because something in their life makes waiting nine months genuinely impossible. Understanding that, and marketing directly to it, is how resale wins against builder incentives that look unbeatable on paper.

The buyer who cannot wait has a specific profile, and in North Dallas that profile shows up in recognizable patterns. Corporate relocations from California, Canada, and the East Coast are the most common source, and they are a core part of the relocating clientele this team has served for years. North of 635 is a different world from the rest of the Metroplex, and it is where the bulk of corporate relocation traffic lands. A buyer relocating from California or Toronto with a start date three months away cannot sign a builder contract and manage a nine-month build from two thousand miles away. They need something they can close on and move into, and they will pay a real premium for that certainty.

School year timing is the second major driver. Frisco ISD enrollment deadlines are not flexible, and a family that misses the enrollment cutoff loses a full school year in their chosen zone. A family with children already enrolled or expecting to enroll by August has a deadline that a nine-month builder timeline cannot accommodate (City of Frisco, Frisco ISD enrollment guidance, 2026). That is a buyer who will move on a resale that is priced right and ready to close.

A current home already under contract is the third. Sellers who have accepted an offer and are now buyers themselves often have a specific closing date they are working backward from. A builder cannot promise them a nine-month close that lines up with the date their current home funds. A resale that can close in thirty to forty-five days can. Corporate relocation packages are the fourth driver, and they frequently include a deadline for using closing cost assistance or the relocation benefit, which makes timeline as important to that buyer as price.

Language that signals the right advantage

The specific phrases that matter to these buyers are not vague. “Move-in ready” means something to a relocating buyer that “recently updated” does not. “Immediate possession available” is more powerful than “motivated seller” for a buyer who needs a hard close date. “Close in 30 to 45 days” is a number a buyer with a school enrollment deadline can put on a calendar and work backward from. These are the advantages of resale over new construction stated plainly and precisely, and they belong in your listing description, your agent’s pitch to buyer agents, and the framing of every showing. The buyer who already knows they cannot wait will recognize them immediately (NAR Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report, 2026).

How does the Kaitlin Lovern Team compete with builders?

Competing with builders is not transactional for us. A Frisco resale listing in a market where builders are writing incentive checks worth tens of thousands of dollars requires a seller’s agent who is tracking those incentives in real time, not just comparing your home to the last few MLS closings and calling it a day. We know which builder communities in and around Frisco are releasing new inventory phases, which are nearly sold out and pulling back their incentives as demand firms up, and when a builder’s fiscal quarter is pushing them to offer more generous packages to hit their targets. That intelligence is part of how we price your home, not an afterthought.

We look at each property as a piece of art in our portfolio. The homes we represent are not interchangeable inventory items to be priced and pushed through. The story a Frisco resale tells, its neighborhood, its lot, its finishes, its school zone, its specific advantages over a new-construction option two miles away, is the story we build the marketing around. A buyer choosing between your home and a builder community is ultimately choosing between a certain future and an uncertain one, and the resale that wins frames its certainty compellingly.

We also understand that not every buyer’s financial situation fits the cookie-cutter profile a builder’s preferred lender is set up for. A buyer from California with a complex income structure, equity from a high-value sale, or a non-traditional employment arrangement may find a builder’s preferred lender inflexible in ways an independent lender will not be. Our lender relationships, developed over years of representing relocating buyers and sellers in North Dallas, include underwriters who understand that not every client is a W-2 with a tidy file. That matters when the buyer who needs your home most is also the buyer a builder’s in-house lender has turned away.

We price at the start, not at the third price reduction. Our sellers do not chase the market down. The goal of the pricing conversation before the listing goes live is to arrive at a number that holds, because a number that holds produces better net proceeds than an ambitious starting price that erodes through reductions, extended days on market, and a stigma that follows the listing into every new negotiation. With the builder competition in Frisco as active as it is in 2026, getting to the right number before day one is not a conservative strategy. It is the aggressive one (Texas Real Estate Research Center, 2026).

Ranked in the top 1% of REALTORS® nationwide and RealTrends Verified, Kaitlin has represented more than 400 North Dallas families. That volume of experience means she has watched what happens when Frisco resale sellers price above the builder-adjusted ceiling, and she has watched what happens when they price into it cleanly and close in thirty days. The pattern is consistent enough that she can show you, with real data, not promises.