Marissa Scott's Playbook for Military Buyers, New Construction Traps, and Negotiating in a 59% Price-Reduction Market

In nearly 19 years of selling real estate in Northeast Florida, Marissa Scott has seen every version of the Jacksonville market. She has relocated hundreds of military families, navigated the Base Realignment and Closure process early in her career, guided buyers through the chaos of pandemic-era bidding wars, and now finds herself in a market where nearly 59 percent of listed homes have seen price reductions. What has not changed is her approach: ask the uncomfortable questions early, tell the truth consistently, and do the homework that most agents skip.

Marissa, founder and brand ambassador at United Real Estate Gallery in Jacksonville, sat down for an extended conversation that covered military buyer trends, the real tradeoffs between new construction and resale, and a negotiation framework that has served her across every market cycle she has encountered.

Serving Military Families in 2026: The Questions That Have to Come First

Jacksonville is home to NAS Jacksonville and Naval Station Mayport, making military relocation a constant in the Northeast Florida market. Marissa has built a significant portion of her practice around this community — a connection deepened by her own experience as a former Navy spouse who immigrated from the Philippines before building her career here.

When a service member calls her with orders, the conversation follows a deliberate sequence.

"The first thing I ask is how big is the family, because money and the size of home — you have to match that. Then I ask if the wife is working, because then I know if they have the ability to go higher. And I ask about the area, if they're familiar with it."

With an E-5 receiving approximately $2,181 per month in Basic Allowance for Housing in 2026, affordability conversations happen immediately. Marissa factors in current interest rates, insurance costs — which she raises in the first call rather than late in the process — and the realistic price points available near the bases.

She has observed a meaningful shift in military buyer behavior compared to even five years ago. Families who once eagerly used their VA benefit to purchase a home are increasingly choosing base housing or rentals, driven by the combination of elevated purchase prices and higher rates.

"Because of affordability and the interest rate, a lot of them are looking at either going into base housing or renting. We're only going to be there for two years — why are we going to buy if the houses are so expensive and the rate is still pretty high?"

For families near NAS Jacksonville, Marissa points toward communities like Oak Leaf, Eagle Harbor, and Fleming Island, where pricing more frequently aligns with military housing allowances. She also raises the insurance discussion early — homes built before 2000 can carry annual premiums in the $3,000-plus range, adding hundreds of dollars per month to a payment that was already stretched.

One piece of advice she gives every client she has closed with in the prior year: call your insurance agent and ask them to re-shop your policy annually.

"A lot of homeowners don't know they can do that. I still do this until this day — every year, I check on the people I closed with the year prior and say, just tell that agent to re-shop. You're probably having a heart attack because it's so much."

The New Construction Trap Military Buyers Need to Understand

New construction is booming across Northeast Florida, driven by builder incentives that resale sellers simply cannot match: rate buy-downs, two-one buy-down programs, adjustable-rate products, closing cost coverage, and agent bonuses designed to drive traffic to model homes. For buyers — especially military families on tight payment budgets — the appeal is obvious.

But Marissa is direct about what buyers and agents need to understand before walking into a model home.

"One of the things buyers are not realizing is they can't just walk into a model without their agent, because a lot of these builders won't let you bring your agent back if they're not there on your first visit."

Beyond the first-visit rule, she sees buyers routinely leaving negotiating power on the table because they do not know what builders will and will not move on. Site agents will quote the rate incentive and closing cost coverage — but they are not going to volunteer refrigerators, prepaids, or upgraded lot premiums.

"That's when a Realtor comes in and negotiates those things on your behalf. Most builders will say, if you use our preferred lender, we'll get you this rate and pay your closing costs. But they're not saying we'll also cover prepaids, they're not saying we'll get you a refrigerator. They're not saying all of those other things."

She also warns buyers — and the agents representing them — about builder financing limitations. Builder-affiliated lenders often have tighter debt-to-income constraints than outside lenders. When a buyer gets denied by a builder's preferred lender, many assume the deal is dead. It frequently is not.

"What they didn't know is that they can still proceed with that property. They bring in another lender, and the builder will honor what they offered, as long as they get a denial letter or as long as their preferred lender cannot compete with what the other lender is giving you."

Her advice to agents who want to serve buyers in new construction communities: stop waiting for the customers to come to you, and go build relationships with site agents directly.

"Go bring them coffee. Say, I'm on my way, do you want a cup? When that site agent earns your trust — guess what? When a customer comes to their model home and they still have a home to sell, they're calling you."

She also recommends agents sign up for weekly spec sheets from every active builder community in their market, attend new construction caravans, and know the inventory before the buyer asks about it.

Negotiating When 59% of Listings Have Had Price Cuts

Nearly six in ten Jacksonville homes carried a price reduction in recent data — a meaningful shift in negotiating power toward buyers. Marissa does not treat that statistic as a green light to submit low-ball offers. She treats it as a reason to do more homework before writing anything.

Her pre-offer process begins with the listing history.

"The first thing I look at is the history of the property — how long it's been on the market, when was the last price reduction. If that just happened yesterday, there's no way this seller is willing to take another $40,000 off."

Then she picks up the phone and calls the listing agent — not to exchange pleasantries, but to gather intelligence on seller motivation.

"I want to see the motivation. What is the reason the sellers are moving? Are they completely out of the house? Have they already purchased another home? If they've already purchased and they're paying two mortgages, I have a very different conversation with my buyer than if they're sitting comfortably."

She also pulls comps — always going back no more than three to four months, because the market is shifting fast enough that older data carries too much noise.

And she makes sure the price her buyer wants to offer will actually survive an appraisal.

"I will look really stupid if I agree with that offer, and then the property doesn't appraise. And everybody's ready to move forward, and here comes the appraisal. I have to be very careful that this property is going to appraise for what they're paying."

For sellers who are still anchored to peak-era pricing, Marissa takes a structured approach: set price expectations before the appointment, bring the data, and communicate weekly — even when there is nothing dramatic to report.

"I learned this from Buffini training: it's better to spend two to three minutes calling your seller weekly with an update than to be silent for weeks and then have to make a difficult phone call that lasts thirty minutes."

Short-Term Rentals, Investors, and the Questions Agents Are Not Asking

Jacksonville's rental market has softened from pandemic-era peaks, with the median single-family asking rent settling around $1,890 in early 2026. That has not slowed the flow of investors — experienced and inexperienced alike — reaching out to Marissa looking for the next opportunity.

She makes a clear distinction between legitimate investors and those chasing a dream.

"You can't be an investor, have a rental property, and not make money. That's not investing. What is your margin? What are you expecting?"

For military-adjacent rental investing, she points toward communities near NAS Jacksonville and Mayport, where demand from service members choosing to rent rather than buy is actually increasing — making for a stable, recurring tenant base.

She also raises a warning that has become more relevant as short-term rental interest has grown: not every property in a desirable area can legally operate as an Airbnb, and the cost of learning that after closing is steep.

"I have a client who bought a townhome thinking he could do Airbnb. He fully furnished the property, ready to go — and then the HOA found out about it and shut him down."

Agents who do not read the covenants and restrictions before their buyer falls in love with a property are setting everyone up for a painful conversation.

The Takeaway

Whether Marissa is walking a young Navy family through their first home purchase, sitting across from a seller who still believes it is 2021, or coaching a new agent through their first listing appointment, her framework does not change: ask the questions others avoid, deliver the information clients need rather than what they want to hear, and earn trust through consistency rather than optimism.

In a market where 59 percent of listings have taken price cuts and military families are reconsidering homeownership for the first time in a generation, that framework is not just good practice. It is what keeps clients — and agents — from making decisions they will spend years trying to undo.