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Aren't comps/CMAs useless with buyer credits at close happening now?

I'm looking into buying a new construction townhouse in my HCOL US city. I'm seeing builders offering interest rate buydowns worth $20k-$60k on $800k homes (rather than just lowering prices) in order to keep their comps high for their other units, now that buyer demand has been declining.

I asked my agent about these, and he said these buydowns aren't even the full story: buyers can write all kinds of other credits into an offer, like their closing costs, prepaid sewer fees, etc. Apparently cash buyers can just write in a "buyer credit at close" for any amount in their offer. So a new townhouse that appeared to sell for $800k in the MLS might have actually been a cash offer with a $100k+ buyer credit at close, meaning the buyer only spent $700k or less in total, but to the rest of the world they can only see the $800k!

So that made me realize I can't trust comps/CMAs for other new construction townhouses. The sales prices could be way lower than they appear - who knows what people are actually paying? What's stopping a seller from giving a $300k credit for a $1M home? For all I know, the new construction market could be $100k lower than I think and I'd have no idea.

So then how do I know what to offer on a home? Do you put any faith in comps? How are buyer credits at close even legal?

submitted by /u/saunders77
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/17gqc1h/arent_compscmas_useless_with_buyer_credits_at/
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