After over a decade of buying and selling real estate, we’ve narrowed it down to three times a year as being consistently advantageous for buying a home.
What all three of these times of year have in common is that they’re weeks when people generally have a lot of other priorities, and real estate usually isn’t one of them.
The Week Before Christmas
The week leading up to Christmas ranks number one. People are busy shopping, entertaining, baking, wrapping gifts, and watching holiday movies. Not many people are thinking about buying a home—except those who really want or need one.
The trick at this time of year is to find a home that’s been sitting on the market for a couple of months. If you’re in a buyer’s market, and you find a stale listing, imagine how nice it would be for the homeowner to firm up on a sale before their holiday celebrations; perhaps they’d even budge on the price they’ve been holding firm to.
Here’s how it’s done! Ariel and Adrian talk about their strategy to getting a great deal.
Canada Day Weekend
Although the real estate market is active in the summer, during the July 1st weekend, people are at the beach, camping, or away on vacation. It’s one of those weekends when many people have plans.
The weather is gorgeous, the gardens are in full bloom, and school is out. This means people’s schedules are more flexible. Parents are also considering a move now to ensure kids settle into their new school in September.
For buyers and sellers, one thing to remember is the importance of being available at all times. These days, all the paperwork can be done electronically, but if you’re away enjoying the sun without your agent being able to contact you, you could be missing out on a great deal. We can’t count the number of times a Real Estate Agent has informed us that their client was interested but they were away at the cottage and unresponsive.
Find out the worst days to have an open house.
The Week Before School Starts
When you have kids, there’s always lots to do the week before school starts. People’s priorities are elsewhere. Plus, it’s the last long weekend of the summer, and many families will be away soaking up summer’s final beach days.
The market consistently slows down after the hot summer market. Prices generally start to drop, but inventory is still high. It usually takes a few weeks after the start of the school year before the market begins to generate more activity.
So, there you have it. The three best times of the year to buy real estate are the week before Christmas, the July 1st long weekend, and the week before school starts.
The Key to Buying Real Estate for Less
All of this doesn’t mean that sellers can do exceptionally well during this time as well, there’s a degree of luck with all strategies, but increasing your odds of success is a worthy pursuit. If you’re fortunate to fall in love with properties that have been on the market a while, these tips are more likely to serve you well.
