What Is The Best Time To Buy A House? Is Now A Good Time To Buy A House?

Today we are talking about when is the best time to buy? I have gotten this question over the last couple of weeks quite often, which is making me draft a real impromptu blog to answer this question. Because I think it's very helpful for you to know why. So as I always do, I like to just give you the answer right now, the best time to buy, is right now.

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Hey there, it's Rigs here, bringing you all things real estate from Central Ohio. I am here to answer the question of, is now the best time to buy? And I absolutely say yes, yes, yes! I have three reasons why, and one bonus tip for you, that I think will answer that for you, so let's get started.

#1 | Sellers Are Motivated

The first reason is: sellers are motivated. Yes, sellers are motivated, and here's why.

Think about this: we are at end of year, most of us are thinking holidays, shopping, food, family, friends, fun, all of the things that end of year brings, so to add in the fact that you want to sell a house, or in your case, buy a house, is a pretty intentional decision. Another thing is, honestly, it is known that most buyers purchase a home or sell a home earlier in the year, like earlier in the spring and into the summer.

So think about this: a seller has missed the opportunity to sell their home when the buyer pool is larger, and they waited till now. Now their waiting could be a whole host of reasons, so their level of motivation can be different, but the fact of the matter is, most want to list their home for sale, they want to get it in contract, and they want to close as quickly as possible. So in many respects, sellers are so motivated to get that done before the end of the year.

#2 | Less Buyer Competition

The second thing you want to keep in mind is that the buyer competition is way less right now. You heard me; the buyer pool is less, which means your competition is less. More buyers, like I just told you, buy their homes earlier in the year. Now don't get me home, there are still very serious buyers who are out right now buying homes, so you still may have a little competition, if you found the perfect home. But the reality is, the buyer pool is smaller.

So for you, there is some wonderful perks or benefits to that. One, you might find that you're not having to make a very quick or haste decision about if you want to write an offer on a house or not. I caution you on that, because for us here in Columbus, Ohio, our market is still really good, and homes are going into contract still fairly quickly. So, don't think you can take two, three, five days, seven days to make a decision. You could miss out on the house. But I know for us, earlier this year, you had to go into the home knowing you wanted to make an offer, and in some respects, buyers are making an offer before they even saw the property in real life. You get what I'm saying? So you may just have a couple of hours to process it over, which feels so wonderful, than having to make a really, pretty haste decision.

Another benefit of the buyer pool being smaller and having less competition, means that there may not be the multiple offer situations. This gets tough, when the buyer pool is larger, there's a greater demand for homes, and what was happening here in Columbus is we couldn't keep homes on the market active long enough! So way more buyers than the amount of homes we had, creates multiple offers for those homes that are in great locations, good condition, and priced right. Everybody wants them, which means multiple buyers, multiple offers, and naturally, the price goes up. For you right now, you're in a space where you might not have to deal with that because the buyer pool is less.

#3 | Room To Negotiate

The final thing I'll say about this one here, is you may find that you have more room to negotiate with the seller right now than you would have earlier in the year.

So if you're one who knows you need a little bit of seller concessions, in the way of closing costs, maybe you want the seller to cover your home warranty for the first year, whatever it may be, you might be able to negotiate that more with a seller now, than maybe you could have earlier in the year when the market was more saturated.

Now you may feel like you are getting a bargain on the home that you're purchasing too! And I only say that because when things calm a little bit, you don't necessarily have the multiple offers where the price gets pushed up. What happens in those situations is, the price gets pushed up, and the price could be here, but the appraised value is here. And so, you're in space that if you want that home, and the seller will not come down on the price, and your lender doesn't have a stipulation, the seller may say, "I want the amount that you offered to me." And if you're not willing to do that, you're not going to close on the house. Most buyers will go in knowing they can be in that space, and are prepared to pay more for the house they want. That's in a really jumping market.

When the market calms, you find that sellers can price it to what they believe the market value is, and, in many cases, that appraisal will come in to either support that or be below that, and maybe the seller's willing to come down. It's just a wonderful thing when you feel like you get a bargain, and really what it is, is just things are staying where they should be, and it's not buyer demand pushing the price out of a space where it shouldn't be.

All right, those are the three things I wanted to make sure, my three reasons why I think now is a wonderful time to buy.

BONUS TIP

I wanted to give you a bonus tip here, a pro tip, if you will. All the things I've shared, please do not think I am telling you that you can just take, take, take from the seller. I am not saying that. You have to understand, the seller has what you want. They have the home that you want to purchase. So there needs to be this win-win on either side in order to put the transaction together. So if you're doing this on your own, keep this in mind, and if you're working with an agent, the good ones understand this. I'm not saying there aren't things you can ask for, but there needs to be this level of a win-win on each side.\

So my tip to you is, don't be foolish, don't allow your ego to get in the way, and don't get in the space of thinking I'm gonna get anything and everything because you could miss out on a home that is so beautiful that could work great for you or your family.

So there you have it! That is all I have for today.

In the comments if you have any questions, comments, concerns, leave those for me down in the comment section, I will answer anything there.

And if this all made sense, and it was helpful, make sure that down in the comments section, hit me up with #RigsIGotThis. Let me know this video made sense and that is was helpful for you, and I will keep doing more of these impromptu blogs.

That's all I have for now. Stay fabulous and productive!

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