Buyers:  When is the best time to buy?  

When is the best time to purchase a home?  This is a common question my agents and I generally answer when meeting with prospective clients looking to purchase their first home.  Any good agent will tell you a good, market answer to impress you: When interest rates are low and inventory on homes are high.  If you have ever heard of the term buyer’s market, this is what they are talking about. Friends, there is more to it than this.  I wish it were that easy.  Here are some things to consider when you think you are ready to buy a home:

• Family situation.  If you are a client that has little kids in school, the whole ‘interest rates are low and inventory is high’ doesn’t necessarily fit when considering uprooting your children in the middle of a school year.  
•  It’s a buyer’s market, but homes in the neighborhoods you are living in do not have homes for sale.  Sought after neighborhoods generally do not have sales for a reason.  This is usually because the owners love where they live just as much as you would love to buy their home.
• You think you are ready, but didn’t talk to trained professionals in the industry about exactly what you may need financially and emotionally to prepare you for this journey.
• The realization that when a buyer’s market is established within the industry, you are not the only client looking to take advantage of this opportunity.  Remember the economics class you fell asleep in back in high school? Whelp, this is a real life example of that Mr. Boring taught, but on a relevant scale.  Low interest rates bring more buyers in the real estate market… which lessens the inventory opportunity for others when sales close.  Cause and effect.  Supply and demand.  You get the picture.  

When we (as in Key Project agents… yes, shameless plug) answer this open-ended question, we give you the cool market answer every other agent can give you… but finish the sentence with, ‘but at the end of the day… it is when YOU are ready to purchase a home.’

It is true.  Clients can’t be forecasters waiting for the right opportunity.  You just don’t know if and when that window will be open.  Maybe September-December one year has that perfect interest rate/inventory prism that everyone covets, but you have kids studying for exams and fully immersed in their school year.  At the end of the day, it is when YOU are ready.  When life deals you a great hand, professionally, financially, and mentally, to where you are ready to take that next leap into home purchasing, it doesn’t matter that the interest rates a little higher than normal, or that the inventory is a little leaner.  Home buying doesn’t deviate too much from the wonderful opportunities in life.  When you prepare properly and patient, the opportunity presents itself when it is time.

If you think you’re ready to buy or need to talk to a real estate professional, our Key Project agents are ready to work with you.