Desperate sellers are slashing prices and offering perks. Here are 4 deals home buyers can ask for.

• There are fewer buyers in the market, and home sellers are getting desperate.

• That’s good news for motivated buyers, who are seeing a rise in sellers offering concessions.

• Here are four deals buyers can negotiate, from price cuts to seller-covered repairs.

After years of being at sellers’ mercy, homebuyers can finally breathe.

In markets where inventory is outpacing demand and contracts are falling through, sellers are getting desperate.

This is an opening for motivated buyers: homebuilders and homeowners are cutting asking prices and, in some cases, offering incentives or concessions.

“There are more homes to fill than there are buyers out there,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, told Business Insider. “Those are going to vary by geography, but especially in places where there’s a lot of new construction, it is a buyer’s market.”

While Fairweather says homebuilders are generally more willing to negotiate than existing homeowners — many of whom are locked into pandemic-era low mortgage rates — there’s still room to bargain in today’s real estate market.

Here are four deals worth negotiating as a homebuyer, along with their benefits and risks.

A lower purchase price has many benefits. Because the down payment is a percentage of the price, a reduction cuts your upfront costs. It also pays off over time: If you have a mortgage, you’ll borrow less, so your principal-and-interest payment decreases, reducing the total interest paid over the life of the loan.

Fairweather says builders are more likely than existing homeowners to agree to a price cut.

“Existing homeowners can just continue to live in the home if they don’t get a high enough offer,” Fairweather said. “Builders, on the other hand, are more motivated because every day that a home doesn’t sell is a day that they’re paying interest or that they don’t have that money on their books.”

In a mortgage rate buydown, a home seller or builder pays to temporarily reduce a buyer’s interest rate for the early years. When that period ends, the rate reverts to its original note.

An alternative option for buyers seeking a permanent cut is to purchase discount points at closing. Typically, one point equates to 1% of the loan and cuts the rate by 0.25%.

It’s important to remember a mortgage rate buydown is temporary. That means your interest rate will eventually increase, which can be challenging if you’re not prepared for the higher costs. A buydown may also not pay off if you’re planning to sell your home in the short term or if rates drop below your current rate.