In real estate, money is made by buying, not selling. That means every dollar you negotiate with the asking price is a dollar toward your net worth. So you need all the tools at your disposal: smart representation, patience, compelling offers, and yes, even publicly available data that might not be right.
This is not lying or making anything up. It’s about using the information landscape to your advantage, the same way marketers and their agents already do.
The Chart That Inspired This Post
Check out Parcl Labs’ “Bullish vs. Bearish Housing Markets” chart below. Parcl Labs bills itself as a real-time real estate analytics company. The chart is really useful for seeing trends in markets like Florida and Texas, where the booms of the COVID era are receding and supply is still high.
But notice the round dot: SFO. That’s San Francisco. According to Parcl Labs, home prices here are falling every year.
I live in San Francisco. I track a bunch of properties. I watch offer dates, ask premiums, and computers as a hobby at this point. Prices in San Francisco are up at least 10% year over year, not down. The properties go well beyond asking. The bidding wars are back. The data Parcl Labs shows for SFO is completely wrong.
And that’s exactly the point.
Two Ways to Use Misinformation as a Consumer
There are two good times to use publicly available data like this.
The first is before you enter into the contract. If a property has been sitting on the market for a long time, it may be overpriced. Draw a chart like this one, print it out, and respectfully present it as part of the presentation. You don’t blame the seller for anything. You just show them what the data says. Even if the data is wrong, it introduces doubt, and doubt creates room for negotiation.
The second is after you go into escrow. This is a very powerful movement. If the seller accepts your offer, you are emotionally and formally committed. Tell their friends, their family, maybe they have already chosen their next destination. The last thing they want is for the deal to fall apart. Any data that looks credible that suggests the market is softening gives you reason to come back and ask for a price cut or credit during the testing period.
I have bought seven properties in 23 years and sold two. I have seen these dynamics play out first hand. When we bought our current home, we went into contract in late July and didn’t close until early October. That gave us weeks of testing, troubleshooting, and negotiating credits. We didn’t catch everything, but we got the big stuff out.
Fear is a Salesperson’s Worst Enemy
Part of why this works is psychological. Marketers are not immune to fear. In fact, sellers are more afraid of not being able to sell a home than a buyer is of not being able to buy a home.
I sold one of my properties in 2025 because the fires in Southern California pissed me off. I had four rental properties worth over eight figures and suddenly I couldn’t stop thinking about one of them being brand new with a $1.4 million mortgage attached. So I sold. Maybe I called at least 10% for other benefits. Fear is expensive.
As a consumer, you can channel that fear effectively. Show a chart that suggests prices are falling. Throw in a few articles about AI demolition at Meta, Block, and others. Make the case that a correction in the tech sector could put pressure on housing demand. None of this is artificial, all real sound from real sources. You just choose it from the ending that works for you.
On a $2 million San Francisco home, talking a realtor down 1-3% can save you $20,000 to $60,000. That’s a reasonable number worth 30 minutes of prep work.
Look for ALL CAPS and the title used for data marketing. Fear sells!
Seeing is Real, Especially in Homes for Sale
The same power that allows smart buyers to pick up San Francisco real estate at relative value in 2023 during the doom loop narrative is available to you now.
The Internet is full of real estate data that is outdated, compiled incorrectly, or not properly adjusted for local conditions. You don’t have to create any of it. You just need to know where to look and how to present.
The greater the gap between perception and reality, the greater the opportunity for the patient, informed consumer.
Related: Where Advertised Square Footage Differs from Public Records
Readers, have you ever used publicly available data, whether accurate or not, to negotiate a lower price on a home or larger purchase? How did it go? Where is the ethical line between using publicly available data strategically and misleading a marketer? Does it exist? What other negotiation strategies have worked for you when buying real estate?
Interested in Investing in These Crashed Markets?
If the Sunbelt data has you intrigued instead of scared, you’re thinking like an investor. Markets like Texas and Florida are experiencing the type of price correction and oversupply that precedes a repeat. The question is how to get exposure without buying a rental property, working with tenants, or flying to San Antonio to kick the tires on a duplex.
It is there Fundrise enters.
Fundrise is one of the easiest ways to start dollar cost averaging of real estate markets across the country, including Sunbelt markets that appear in the bearish quadrant of that Parcl Labs chart. Instead of going all-in on one area by zip code, you get diverse exposure across multiple markets and property types, managed by a team of professionals who do your due diligence.
You can start with as little as $10. There are no tenants to manage, no surprise repair bills, and no escrow game. Steady, automated real estate investing at any cadence that works within your budget.
Fundrise is a long-term sponsor of Financial Samurai and Financial Samurai is an investor in Fundrise products. All opinions are my own.
