How to Win Buying New Construction: It's Almost All Timing

They walk into the design center trying to get money off the price. The builder holds firm, hands them a list of included features, and everybody shakes hands feeling like they did fine.

They may have left real money on the table. Not because they negotiated badly. Because they showed up in the wrong month and asked for the wrong thing. Here's how it actually works.

The Builder Knows More About Your Situation Than You Think

Most people buying a high-end home in Wellington are not first-time buyers. Many walk into the sales center owning a home they need to sell first. The builder knows this. They see it every day.

They may also recognize something you have not said out loud: you are equity rich and cash poor. You have a house that is worth a lot and has been paid down for years. On paper you are in great shape. But that money is locked in the walls of a house you are still living in. Until it sells, you cannot touch it. Meanwhile, the builder wants a deposit, your lender wants to see reserves, and your actual checking account says the timing does not work.

That is not necessarily a price problem. It is a timing problem.

Why They'd Rather Give You Anything But a Discount

A price cut is public. It closes at a number that becomes part of the sales record, and other buyers in that community can point to it as a comparable sale. A single discount can influence expectations for the builder's remaining inventory.

An incentive can preserve the recorded price. It may also cost the builder less than an equivalent price reduction, depending on the incentive and the property.

PulteGroup has put real numbers behind this. On its fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call, the company said incentives averaged 9.9 percent of gross sales price, and that the increase came mainly from selling finished spec homes as it closed out the year. Incentives reached 10.9 percent in the first quarter of 2026, then eased in the second quarter after Pulte deliberately cut the number of finished homes it had sitting.

For three straight quarters, roughly ten cents or more of every sales dollar went back to buyers through incentives — not a rumor from a sales center, but a public company explaining to investors what it spends to move homes.

What They'll Actually Give You

• A rate buydown. Usually offered through the builder's affiliated or preferred lender. This is the big one, and many buyers underrate it. Points bought down on a 30-year loan may be worth more over time than a modest price reduction, depending on the loan terms and how long you keep the mortgage.
• A smaller deposit or a deposit schedule. This directly addresses the equity-rich, cash-poor problem. If you can put down less cash initially and stage the rest around the sale of your current home, the timing obstacle may become manageable.
• Upgrades and design center credits. The builder's cost on upgrades may be below the retail value assigned to the credit. Compare the credit with the actual value of the selections you would make.
• Closing costs. Builders commonly tie these credits to using their affiliated lender. Compare the full Loan Estimate, not just the headline credit.
• Flexibility on timing. An extended closing window while your house sells can be worth a lot to you, even when it does not appear as a discount on the contract.

Who's Public and Who Isn't

Publicly traded, with public reporting cycles: PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM), which builds under names including Pulte Homes, DiVosta and Del Webb; Lennar (NYSE: LEN); D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI); and Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL).

Privately held, without the same public-company earnings cycle: GL Homes, Kolter Homes, Mattamy Homes, Minto Communities, Akel Homes and Kennedy Homes. Private builders still care about inventory, cash flow and internal targets — they simply do not answer to the same public quarterly reporting calendar.

Here is what that looks like locally. At Avenir in Palm Beach Gardens, Toll Brothers (Watermark and Regency at Avenir) and DiVosta (Ancient Tree) run on public reporting calendars. GL Homes (Apex at Avenir), Kolter Homes (L'Ambiance at Avenir) and Akel Homes (Solana Bay at Avenir) do not. You can walk out of Ancient Tree and into Apex the same afternoon and be in two completely different conversations. At Arden, Lennar is public while GL Homes and Kennedy Homes are private. Lotis Wellington and Whitmore Estates in Lake Worth are Lennar. Westlake is built primarily by Minto, with Kolter's Cresswind for 55+.

And the Fiscal Years Don't Line Up

Here is the piece that even many agents miss. Not every builder's fiscal year ends in December. D.R. Horton's fiscal year ends September 30. Toll Brothers ends October 31. Lennar ends November 30. PulteGroup, which includes DiVosta, reports on a calendar-year basis ending December 31.

That means year-end pressure can land at four different points on the calendar. There is no single best month to buy a new home — there may be a better window for a particular builder and division, based on its reporting cycle and inventory position.

But None of It Matters If You Can't Close

All of the above assumes you can actually perform. That brings us back to the house you are still living in. Here are the paths buyers use to get from where they are to where they want to be:

• Bridge financing. Borrow against available equity to fund the new purchase, then pay it off when the old house sells. The costs and qualification requirements need to be modeled carefully.
• Sell and lease back. Close your sale, then stay in the house for an agreed period while the new home finishes. This can solve the timing problem cleanly when the buyer of your current home agrees.
• Sell and rent for a while. It is not elegant, but it can be lower risk — you move twice, but you remove the pressure to coordinate two closings perfectly.
• Sell and stay with family. It can work if everybody is honest about the timeline and expectations.
• A guaranteed backup agreement. Calque offers a Guaranteed Backup Agreement on the current home through participating lenders. The agreement can remove a home-sale contingency from the next purchase, subject to the program and underwriting terms. The homeowner then has up to 180 days to sell the current home on the open market.

Calque also markets a Build Ahead Mortgage for new construction. Calque is not the mortgage lender — the mortgage comes through a participating lending partner, while Calque provides the backup agreement. It solves the home-sale contingency and qualifying problem. It does not fund your deposit. If you need equity out of your current home before it sells, that runs through the lender, usually as a second loan. There is a program fee. Product availability, fees, qualification requirements and property eligibility should be confirmed for the specific transaction.

Different roads. Same destination. And some people look at all of it, decide it is more than they want to take on, and stay where they are. That is a real outcome, and it is not a failure.

Explore the New Construction Hub

If you are comparing communities, start with the local guides below. Each page brings the builders, neighborhoods and current buying considerations into one place.

• Avenir New Construction Guide
• Arden New Construction Guide
• Westlake New Construction Guide
• Lotis Wellington New Construction Guide