Housing Market Tips for Buyers: 5 Essential Spring Market Tips
In many real estate markets throughout the United States, springtime is the most popular time to buy a home. In most markets, springtime means that the real estate market becomes very competitive. With fierce competition, you are going to need to be prepared to fight to nab yourself a stellar property…or sometimes even just A home! These are the tried and true tips to getting you prepared to buy a home in the spring housing market.
Whether you are at the beginning of your home search in the spring housing market, or you’ve been looking for your home for a while, these housing market tips are sure to get you an accepted offer quick.
5 Essential Tips for the Spring Housing Market
- Be flexible with your schedule/time
- Understand your true wants vs. needs
- Have backup plans for your move
- Learn how to network the private market
- Have your finances in order
Before we get a little deeper, just know, we get it. These five housing market tips seem pretty standard. Keep reading to find out exactly what we mean with each of them. After years in the real estate industry, these are the tips that real estate brokers learn, but are not taught. Not all real estate agents have been in the business long enough to explain, in detail, how these housing market tips can help you successfully find the right house during the spring market.
1. Be Flexible with your schedule/time
The real estate market never sleeps, seriously. For real estate agents, buyers & sellers, this can be frustrating. There is not a time of day that real estate stops, nor is there a day that everyone takes off. It’s because of this, that you need to make sure that you have the ability to be flexible with your time and your schedule when you are looking to buy a home. Especially during the spring market.
You need to be ready to look at a property the moment that it hits the market. This means that you might need to skip your morning yoga class you love. Or you might need to wake up your kid from their nap just so you can get in to see the house You are going to need to let go of the boundaries that bring peace. There is no peace in the spring housing market, it is vicious and it will not wait for you.
You need to be flexible with your time so that you can see the property quickly; so that you can write an offer on a home that you love swiftly. When you schedule a showing, it’s not just your schedule to consider. The showing time is also going to need to work for the Sellers and for your real estate agent…and sometimes for the listing agent as well. The more availability that you have, the better chance you’ll have of getting in the door swiftly so that you can make an offer promptly.
DO NOT WAIT FOR THE OPEN HOUSE!
This is a common mistake that Buyers make. Home buyers think that the house will still be available at the time of the open house. While it might still be available, it is likely that there are already offers on the home because other buyers didn’t wait to see it. Other buyers likely looked at the home before they went to work. Or during their lunch break on the day the home went live on the market. Your chances of getting the home rests on how soon you see it when it is fresh on the market.
Even if the house has not gone under contract, but there are multiple offers…your real estate agent or lawyer still needs to draft the offer with you. This process can take up to 2 hours. And that is only if they are available to draft the offer. What if they have other obligations?
Do not wait to schedule a showing on a home that you like.
2. Understand your true wants vs. needs
Most home buyers think they have a good understanding of what they want in a house, and many times neither their budget or reality, aligns with what they want. This is why it is important to start your home buying journey sooner than you think. If you plan to buy a home in spring, start touring homes immediately. You want to start to tour so you can figure out what you like, and more important, what you don’t like.
Finding reality
You may also need to come to terms with reality and what is actually available. For instance, you might want to look in a certain location of your city with older homes. If you are looking for a home in this area with a large mudroom, walk-in closets, or first floor laundry…you might find yourself disappointed. Old homes have none of these things, but they usually have
Understanding your wants vs. needs is going to help streamline the process once the spring market hits. You won’t be wasting your valuable time, or anyone else’s, by looking at homes that are not a fit. Spring is not the time to “find yourself”, spring is the time to be efficient and to be prepared to strike when ready!
3. Have backup plans for your move
This kind of circles back to point one of being flexible. But now, its about being flexible in organizing your move. Why? Well it’s pretty important. One of the most important factors that helps a Seller determine if they plan to accept your offer is convenience of the closing date and Seller’s occupancy.
Sometimes that is not the same day. Sometimes, Sellers will ask you for post-closing occupancy…it’s kind of like them renting back the house from you after you own it. This is another time where you are likely going to need to put your peace on the back burner, and get out of your comfort zone. It’s not ideal to go through the excitement of buying your home, only to have to wait a few more weeks before you move in. However, it might just be what you need to do in order to “win” in the hot spring market.
Keep your leverage
Another reason that you’ll want a back up plan, is so that you hold leverage for yourself. Consider this: you get an accepted offer on a home. The moment that you get the accepted offer, you tell your landlord you are moving out. Your landlord wastes no time and finds someone to rent your place once you move out. Now you are 3 weeks in to your transaction and the home doesn’t appraise at the purchase price. Suddenly you don’t want to have to buy the home anymore. Or you want to negotiate with the Seller. If you are in a situation where you might be homeless if you don’t buy this house, you have lost your leverage.
Having a back up plan makes you a more attractive buyer for sellers, and gives you more leverage once you have an accepted offer.
4. Learn how to navigate the private market
In 2019 the National Association of Realtors© tried to make private listings more difficult to offer with the Clear Cooperation Act. The intent of this policy was to force agents associated with the NAR, aka Realtors©, to make their Sellers list their homes publicly in MLS. Moreover, the intent was to give more buyers the opportunity to know what is available.
Rumor has it that an east coast lawsuit violating the Fair Housing Act was the reason the NAR chose this route. It was an effort to show that discrimination is not tolerated. While marketing of private listings was “outlawed”; the NAR did say “office exclusives” are allowed.
Many agents believe this created the opposite of what was intended. Multiple Listing Service is for all brokers & agents to cooperate. Office exclusives exclude cooperation.
The Clear Cooperation Act created a system where private listings became even more quite than they were before. Yet they absolutely still exist.
You are going to want to align yourself with a real estate agent who has been in the business for many years. New agents haven’t had enough sales to build up a network of trust with other agents across brokerages. Don’t assume that your agent has, or doesn’t have, connections because of the size of their team or brokerage. Some of it is luck, but most of it is who your agent knows and how hard they will work for you. If you feel your agent isn’t doing a good job for you, see our post Can I fire My Real Estate Agent: 5 tips if you hire a bad real estate agent
5. Have your finances in order
When it is time to write an offer, you’ll want to submit either proof of funds or a pre-approval letter. If you are a cash offer, you’ll submit proof of funds. If you are getting a loan, you will want a pre-approval letter that is current (not expired). You’ll also want your pre-approval letter to show that you are pre-approved for the purchase price. Make sure you have these documents ready to go before you get serious. Or even when you start the education process.
You will need to deposit earnest money when you get an accepted offer. Or maybe with your offer. Nonetheless, you should have this money readily available so you can deliver it promptly.
If you are able to adopt these five tips for the spring housing market, you will have a better chance of winning!