A builder or seller "incentive" is usually a credit toward closing costs and rate, and the purchase price stays right where it was. Take an illustrative twenty thousand dollars. As a price reduction, it lowers the amount you finance for as long as you hold the loan. As a credit, it lowers your cash to close and can lower the monthly payment through a rate buydown, while the contract price on paper stays the same. Two very different outcomes from the same headline number. Builders structure it as a credit for two reasons. Most buyers, even ones who say they want a lower price, decide on the monthly payment, so a buydown that drops the payment feels more compelling than an equivalent price cut. And the full contract price props up the comparable sales in their own neighborhood. Keep one idea front and center: a credit is your own money, moved around. You repay it through a bigger loan and a bigger payment for as long as you own the home. So ask exactly how the incentive can be used, then run both paths against a straight price reduction. We lean against buydown-heavy uses, especially if you might refinance and the benefit would be short-lived, and nobody can promise where rates go. The side-by-side is still worth seeing, and we will model both for you on the free Roadmap conversation.