As the winter months approach in the Dallas Texas area, I am reminded again that it’s good to be a Texan. Yes, my tennis playing days of the year will get a lot more scarce than in the harvest of Spring and Summer, but it will be made up for with golfing adventures in December, I can assure you.
During this time of year as you probably are aware, real estate tends to slow down as people’s attention shifts to the holidays, wood burning fires, turkey and family. Plano, Texas is not immune to the slow down. On the contrary though, if I could just bring you back to the mere thought of buying real estate in November or December of all months…ok seriously, put the candy corn down and follow me here:
Buy in the winter months. There are good and bad times of the year to buy, and there are good markets and bad markets. If you can, probably the best time of the year to buy your home is in December, preferably during the last two weeks of the month when everyone is fussing about the holidays.
Traditionally, there are fewer home sales between Thanksgiving and New Year’s (by a wide margin) than any other time of the year, simply because fewer buyers are out looking. Most buyers get involved with the holidays and put off home searching until after the New Year. The last few weeks of December traditionally have the poorest sales of all. Most sellers who haven’t been able to sell their homes during the summer months feel the same way and remove them from the market after Thanksgiving. Often the only sellers who keep their homes up for sale (or list them at this time) are those who are desperate to get out. And if they haven’t sold by the end of December, those sellers are very desperate, indeed.
There are so few buyers at the end of the year, in fact, that “motivated” sellers will often grab at ridiculously low offers just to get out of their property. If you want to save money, that’s when you should make your offer. Buy your home in late December.
Buy in the winter months, and then place your home on the market in the Spring and early Summer to maximize your profit, preferably not in the same year though! One more thing to remember, lenders are increasing their requirments for mortgage loans, thus quailify today before it is too late.
