The right move is staying selective while the market still favors well-positioned sellers.
If you are trying to decide whether this is a smart time to buy, I would not wait for perfect certainty. In Mansfield, TX, the better approach is to stay disciplined, understand where homes are actually closing, and avoid treating every asking price as a final value.
Recent closings in Mansfield, TX came in at a typical price of $476,250, while active homes carried a typical asking price of $559,999. Buyers paid 98.5% of asking on average, and a typical sale took 70 days, which tells me you have room to evaluate homes carefully without assuming every negotiation will be one-sided against you.
My advice is to stay calm and selective. Mansfield, TX still leans toward sellers with 3.2 months of supply, so I would not expect broad discounts across the board. Still, the average offer landing below asking tells me there is space for disciplined negotiation when a home is overpriced, dated, or simply not matching the pace of recent closings.
Set your ceiling before you visit homes and stick to it. Measure each property against recent closed prices, not just the seller's target. Move quickly on the homes that fit your criteria, and step back from the ones that need you to stretch beyond the evidence. That is how I would protect both your budget and your leverage.
