Summer has long reigned as the season of the big move. The kids are out of school, the daylight is plentiful, and the weather may be hot, but it won’t destroy your furniture. It’s hard to beat the summer for home sales – unless you’ve got an eye for a deal. The savvy buyers save their house search for the autumn, sometimes even the winter. Let’s take a closer look at the method to this madness.
Shopping for a Home on Easy Mode
When temperatures rise, so does the competition – at least in the housing market. Summer brings out the most homebuyers, so it’s often a time of brutal bidding wars, skyrocketing prices, and houses barely touching the market before they’re gone. But by the fall, the market is comparatively quiet as kids settle back in at school and the nights come sooner. It’s in that space that buyers can find some much-needed breathing room.
By starting a house search in the off-season, you can:
- Bypass the tense bidding wars.
- Negotiate lower prices and more favorable terms.
- Consider your options with less pressure.
The fall can be like shopping for a home on easy mode, making it particularly attractive to first-time homebuyers.
Motivated Sellers Mean Leverage
People don’t typically list their homes for sale in the fall “just to see what happens.” No, these are motivated sellers with a pressing purpose. Maybe they need to move for work. Perhaps they’ve had an urgent family crisis. Or they might just be trying to prepare for end-of-year tax scenarios. Whatever the case is, they don’t just want out – they need out. Which means they’re often more willing to wiggle on the listing price, closing costs, or necessary repairs. It’s all leverage on the buyer’s side. No matter the details, motivated sellers, much more often than not, make your house search a more rewarding experience.
Curb Appeal < Real
Seeing homes in the less flattering autumn light puts sellers at a slight disadvantage. But it can be great if you’re a realistic homebuyer. By seeing a home at its most honest, warts and all, you:
- Get a feel for the effectiveness of its insulation, central heating, and windows.
- Stand a better chance of catching leaks, drafts, and water damage.
- See a home’s natural lighting at its worst.
If you can live with these vulnerabilities in the cooler months, then they’ll only get better in the springtime.
Setting the Pace
Sure, you can take your time when you begin your house search in the fall. But you can also pick up the pace almost anytime you’d like. That’s because all of the professionals who keep the gears of a transaction moving are no longer in their busy season, so the waiting for services isn’t so long. Need an inspection or appraisal? How about an appointment with a lender? You should be able to get in the door right away with no problem. And if some sort of emergency happens, these professionals can spring into action with undivided attention to help get things back on course.
Timing a House Search for Tax Breaks
The final point isn’t quite as certain as the others, but it’s possible that your autumn house search will open you up to certain tax advantages. But this all hinges on when you actually close on the deal. However, sealing your purchase before the year’s end may earn you some deductions on mortgage interest, property taxes, and more.
Create Your Own Advantage
Even with this knowledge, most home buyers wait until the spring to begin their house search. Their lives demand it. But if yours doesn’t, you can use the real estate off-season to your marked advantage. Curious to see what’s out there? Check out our listings or reach out to our agents to see what’s happening off-market for even less competition!
With a brand that says as much as JohnHart’s, Senior Copywriter Seth Styles never finds himself at a loss for words. Responsible for maintaining the voice of the company, he spends each day drafting marketing materials, blogs, bios, and agent resources that speak from the company’s collective mind and Hart… errr, heart.
Having spent over a decade in creative roles across a variety of industries, Seth brings with him vast experience in SEO practices, digital marketing, and all manner of professional writing with particular strength in blogging, content creation, and brand building. Gratitude, passion, and sincerity remain core tenets of his unwavering work ethic. The landscape of the industry changes daily, paralleling JohnHart’s efforts to {re}define real estate, but Seth works to maintain the company’s consistent message while offering both agents and clients a new echelon of service.
When not preserving the JohnHart essence in stirring copy, Seth puts his efforts into writing and illustrating an ongoing series entitled The Death of Romance. In addition, he adores spending quality time with his girlfriend and Romeo (his long-haired chihuahua mix), watching ‘70s and ‘80s horror movies, and reading (with a particular penchant for Victorian horror novels and authors Yukio Mishima and Bret Easton Ellis). He also occasionally records music as the vocalist and songwriter for his glam rock band, Peppermint Pumpkin.
