Thanksgiving Christmas time Better time to find a deal?

[Kirk R.]

Live in IL so weather get colder around Thanksgiving/Christmas.
Seems buyers aren't as interested in looking around the holiday season.

Do you think it might be easier to find a good deal?

[David Krulac]

NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME?

In the parts of the country with four seasons, there is a season for Real Estate. The prime time for selling Real Estate is April to September. During these months it is a seller's market. There are a number of reasons including:

1. Longer daylight hours mean more hours particularly after the work day to see houses for sale. Not only are the days getting longer but Daylight savings Time increases the daylight hours in the evening. More buyers means more offers and more sales and more rentals.

2. Warmer weather means that you don't have to fight snow, ice, and frigid temperature to go outside and look at houses.

3. Buyers with school aged kids like to move over the summer vacation months of June, July, and August. With a typical 60 day settlement signing a contract to buy a house in April will mean a settlement in June.

4. Sellers with school aged kids also like to move over the summer vacation and often hold back listing or advertising their existing house for sale until March or April. So even buyers without school aged kids, get pulled into the buying/selling market by the influx of new listings/available house in the prime months of April to September.

5. Often times the seller's market will fuel price increases. I have found that with the New Year, sellers raise their asking prices more than other times in the year. Here they are testing the buyers with new prices at higher levels than before. In one development that I'm familiar with, last year's prices were in the $100,000 to $110,000 price range. This year the price range is $117,900, $118,900 and $119,900; which are price level higher than any house has sold before. These sellers are going where no man has gone before! The sellers ask higher prices in the spring, just like Daylight Savings time, they spring forward.

By the start of the school year in September, not only are the temperatures cooling but also the buyers in the marketplace. September is better than October, and October is better than November, and November is better than December.

The worst time to be selling is the months of December and January. Besides the cold weather, short days, snow, and ice, there are the holiday seasons of late November and December. One professional investor says that the real estate buyers take off from Thanksgiving until Super Bowl, which is very true. But if the buyers are staying home during those months, its an opportunity for the seasoned real estate buyers to take advantage of the buyer's market.

Now I'm not saying that if you want to buy wait until December 24th, even though I personally put in offers both last December 24th and December 31st.
I'm sure that there was not a lot of competing offers written on those two days. If you're buying then you should always be on the look out for a well priced property, whether it be Spring, Summer or Winter.

But if you are a seller, you should aim for the prime time for sellers in the Spring. In my experience the Spring fever starts when there is that first day in February, where the temperature reaches 60 degrees. People are ready to forget winter and a ready for Spring, and that means they are ready to buy and rent again with the better weather. And if you have a property for sale in the spring and its not selling, the very first place to look is at the price. No matter the condition or the location, if properly priced and well advertised any property will sell in 90 days, especially in Prime Time.

David Krulac