Home Buying During The Holidays: What You Need To Know

Buying a home can be stressful, buying a home during the holidays usually magnifies those feelings. If you are adding homebuying to the hustle and bustle of planning for presents and travel, there’s a good chance that it could start to feel like too much. However, we like to think that buying a home during the Holidays does have some perks.

If you are a first-time buyer or someone looking for the best deal, buying a home during the winter chill could be the better option. Read on for our three reasons house hunting, and buying, during the holiday season may be worth adding to your to-do list and a couple of tips to make it a little less stressful.

House Hunting During The Holidays Isn’t All Bad

Lower Prices

In a normal housing market, if a seller is listing a home through the winter that is often an indication that they are more motivated to sell. Because of this, you, the buyer, may have more negotiation power. And, what’s better than getting the best possible price for a home? Even with recent skyrocketing housing prices, buying a home during the holidays may give you the price break you need to find the right home.

Less Competition

Real estate transactions tend to ebb and flow with the seasons, with most home-buying and selling occurring while it’s warm outside. Typically people do not aim to move during the colder months due to how unpredictable weather can make everything. With fewer people looking, some of the stress of house hunting can be eased. Even better, you will be less likely to deal with nasty bidding wars. You can breathe knowing your best offer has a better chance of being accepted, and you may just be able to get into your new home ahead of schedule.

Home Awareness

Buying during the colder months exposes you, the buyer, to issues with the house that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. Perhaps the home has a steep driveway that ices over, or the home doesn’t have suitable insulation and/or HVAC issues. While, it may not sound positive to say that the colder weather makes it easy to identify issues with a home, being a well-informed buyer will be to your benefit.

Tips For Tackling Home Buying During The Holidays

Make your inspection a priority 

Due to the unpredictable weather, an inspection can often be harder to schedule. Planning ahead and/or getting your inspection set up as quickly as possible will help keep you moving towards closing day. Also, ensuring that you’re working with the industry’s most trusted professionals can help prevent future headaches as well. And, if you’re ever wondering how to find the best of the best in your community, ZYYAH can help.

Preplan & Get Pre-approval

The holidays can be a stressful time financially. If you are starting your search for a home during the holiday season, get your gift purchases and travel planning out of the way early. Then take one big unknown out of the equation and make sure you are heading to open houses with preapproval. Knowing exactly what you have to work with will make the search and buying process that much more efficient. And, don’t forget, no big purchases between that pre-approval and closing day.

Ultimately, timing the purchase of a home comes down to if you are ready, and if it is a good fit for you at the time. However, with a little extra planning and keeping an eye on the weather, house hunting, and home buying during the holidays could be downright magical and even save you money.

Stay in touch.


Learn more about the ZYYAH family