Buying a Home in the Fall Can Save You Money and Hassle
The conventional wisdom states that the only season in which you should go shopping for a new home is the summer. While it may be true that summer is the nicest season to go around the neighborhood looking at real estate, buying in the summer can actually cost you. There are several reasons for this that we’ll get into in a minute.
But first consider that summer is peak season for the real estate industry. Your real estate agent is at their busiest during the summer, and you are far less likely to get individual, personalized attention from them. That makes sense – after all, they are trying to juggle multiple clients and show scores of properties. For that reason alone it can pay to wait for the dog days of summer to pass before you go looking at homes. Here are some more good reasons why autumn may be the best season for home buying.
Motivated Sellers and Less Competition
Summer is the hot season; it’s when all the hottest properties get listed and sell quickly, especially in a tight and high-demand market. So, yes, keep your eye on the market in the summer just in case your absolute dream home comes on the market. But also consider this: if don’t have your heart set on something that is likely to pop up and disappear in a matter of hours during the summer, then you may save money waiting to shop until fall.
There are fewer buyers shopping in the fall and therefore, less competition for great homes. Also, because the holidays are looming large, sellers that have had their property on the market for some or all of the high season are starting to readjust their expectations and may be more willing to come down a bit from their asking price.
What You See Is Closer to Reality Off-Season
The final reason why fall is generally a terrific season to go home shopping is that reality is a little more visible once the heady days of summer slide into the shorter, somewhat less sunny days of fall. It is very easy to get caught up in the glory of summer and turn a forgiving eye to real and cosmetic flaws that a property may have.
Once the leaves begin to fall and the sun is a little less likely to shine on everything, you may be in a position to more shrewdly evaluate a property, and whether or not you want to live in it year-round. Summer is the season of the seller. The rest of the year, and especially the fall, is definitely a buyer’s market.
