Today’s blog topic is the three limitations that come with doing your most active looking during periods of the year where real estate traditionally is quite quiet. 

The first limitation is distressed properties. Properties during the winter and summer months tend to be on the market a little bit longer than properties that are being sold in the spring and the fall. Regardless of the season, no matter what, the best properties are going to sell relatively quickly. Those best properties are the ones that are completely empty, the sellers are not home when the buyers are going to look at them. They are staged, they have fresh paint jobs, anything that would make the property aesthetically look very, very pleasing to your average buyer. 

So the properties that are still around in the summer and the winter months are ones that have been on the market for a long time and they probably have not been staged. They probably need work, whether it be structurally or whether it be cosmetics. You'll have to go through those properties and really look for the potential of the property and not pay too much attention to the actual state of the property as it is.

The second limitation would be inventory levels. Let's say that you're actively looking in December or January, or August, which I would recommend and suggest. But let's say you've been looking and you've looked at all the properties that are out there, and the ones that have been on the market already and are still kicking around are just not for you, for whatever reason. The issue is that during those time periods, the number of new listings that come out would be very, very low compared to spring and fall, when many new listings are being brought to the market. Data shows us that in the winter months, without question, over and over again is when the inventory and the number of new listings are at their lowest levels throughout the year, and again in the spring, the highest number of new listings are coming to market without fail. So, the likelihood of a new property coming out in January or in August, just as an example, when you're doing your most active looking, is relatively low compared to something like April or May, or maybe October.

The third limitation is actually the flexibility with your own situation. What I mean by that is this - sometimes a property has been lingering on the market for a long time because there's something that the seller is asking for, let's say outside of price, that might not be very cooperative with your average buyer. Let's say they don't actually want to move out until a long time down the road (that's what we call a long closing). 

Another thing is, if a property has been on the market for a long time, and that seller has actually already bought it, then they're going to want to close as fast as possible. So do you as the buyer have the ability to either do that long closing or to be able to move into the property very, very quickly. 

The other thing that needs to be considered is if it's a property that's kind of in rough shape and it needs some work, are you going to move in and then start the renos and live through those renos? Or do you have the ability to stay where you are, and then have the renos take place while you're not living there yet, and then move in once the renos are finished? So, flexibility can be a huge limiting factor for some buyers, but it can also be a bonus if you are currently in a very flexible living situation, you're living at home, you have a rental, and you have a great relationship with your landlord, or you just financially have the ability to carry two properties at one time.

I still maintain that being an active buyer in December, January, July and August can provide you with some really good opportunities if you're seriously looking to purchase real estate, but it does come with these caveats. These are things that you need to strongly consider before you start doing any kind of serious looking.